TRA to review trade remedy measures on Hot Rolled Flat and Coil steel
The Trade Remedies Authority has begun transition reviews into anti-dumping and countervailing measures on Hot Rolled Flat and Coil steel from China.
The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) has today (Tuesday 5 April) initiated transition reviews into anti-dumping and countervailing measures on imports of Hot Rolled Flat and Coil steel from China to decide whether the duties are still needed.
These measures are among those that the UK inherited from the EU system – the TRA is reviewing them to make sure they are still suitable for the UK’s needs.
The measures cover Hot Rolled Flat and Coil steel products often used in the construction and automotive industries among others. The period of investigation for the transition reviews is 1 April 2021 – 31 March 2022, while the injury period is 1 April 2018 – 31 March 2022. View further information on the TRA’s current transition reviews, including the notice of initiation for this review.
Businesses that may be affected by the investigation (such as importers or exporters of the products or UK producers of similar products) can contribute to the investigation by registering on the TRA’s online case platform. They can also stay up to date with developments in the case, which will be posted on the TRA’s public file.
Note to editors
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Anti-dumping duties allow a country or union to take action against goods which are being sold at less than their normal value – this is defined as the price for ‘like goods’ sold in the exporter’s home market.
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Countervailing measures are put in place to counter imports being sold at unfair prices due to government subsidies in their country of origin.
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These measures are two of the three types of trade remedies – along with safeguard measures which address sudden, unforeseen floods of imports – that are allowed under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.
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Trade remedies are usually applied at the border as a duty on imports.
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The TRA is the UK body that investigates whether trade remedy measures are needed to counter unfair import practices and unforeseen surges of imports.
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Trade remedy investigations were carried out by the EU Commission on the UK’s behalf until the UK left the EU. Forty-four EU trade remedy measures of interest to UK producers were carried across into UK law when the UK left the EU and the TRA is currently reviewing each one to check if it is suitable for UK needs.
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Period of Investigation – when we are investigating dumping and subsidy cases, we will use a period of investigation of around a year. We will aim for the end point to be as close as possible to the date of initiation. However, we will decide this on a case-by-case basis.
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Period of injury – the injury period will usually cover the period of investigation and normally the 36 months immediately before this (i.e. 48 months in total). TRA investigators look at evidence of injury over a longer period than the general period of investigation so that they can assess trends and other factors in more detail than if they looked at a single year.