US extends anti-tax evasion investigation into Vietnam steel pipes imports

The U.S. Department of Commerce has extended the time to consider requests for investigation into the charge on trade remedy tax evasion regarding some steel pipe products, mostly those coded HS 7306.61 and 7306.30, imported from Vietnam, for another 30 days.

Accordingly, the consideration will last until July 28 instead of July 1 as announced earlier.

In their lawsuit, large steel pipe manufacturers in the U.S. accused Vietnam of importing hot rolled steel (HRS), the main raw material for producing steel pipes, from mainland China, Taiwan, South Korea and India, and then simply processing it into steel pipes for export to the U.S. in order to evade the respective trade remedy tax that the U.S. is levying on the above-said countries.

The Trade Remedies Authority of Vietnam has recommended that Vietnamese businesses involved continue to review production and export activities pertaining to investigated products, especially HRS raw material sources.

It also advised firms to study U.S. regulations on tax evasion investigation procedures and to strictly and fully comply with the U.S. agency’s requirements during the course of the investigation, if any.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Anti-Dumping Commission (ADC) has decided not to continue anti-dumping duties on aluminum extrusions originated from Vietnam and Malaysia.

Per the ADC’s final conclusion for its final review of the anti-dumping tax period for Vietnamese and Malaysian aluminum extrusions, the products accounted for a relatively small share of the Australian market during the past five years. The application of anti-dumping measures, meanwhile, did not create significant impacts on Australia's aluminum extrusion industry.

According to the ADC, it is unlikely that the products imported from Vietnam and Malaysia will continue to cause damage to the Australian manufacturing industry. Therefore, the 1.9% effective rate of duty imposed on Vietnam was said to expire on June 27, 2022.

The final review began on September 15 last year, examining the period from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021.