Sino-US rift set to grow as trade panel finds China aluminium ‘materially injured’ American industry, allows probe
US President Donald Trump ‘made it clear from day one that unfair trade practices will not be tolerated’, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says
The US Department of Commerce received a judicial ruling authorising it to continue its investigation into whether aluminium alloy sheet metal from China was being dumped or unfairly subsidised, adding to worries of a worsening rift between the world’s two largest economies.
The US International Trade Commission, a bipartisan, quasi-judicial federal agency in charge of administering US trade remedy laws, determined that US industry was “materially injured by reason of imports of common alloy aluminium sheet from China that are allegedly subsidised and sold in the United States at less than fair value”, according to a news release on Friday.
In November, the US Commerce Department launched a “self-initiated” anti-dumping investigation into Chinese aluminium alloy sheet – the first time the US had taken such an action against a trading partner since 1991.
All four ITC commissioners voted affirmatively in support of the government’s trade remedy claims and further action in its investigation.
US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, who launched the investigation into imports of Chinese aluminium alloy sheet, said US President Donald Trump “made it clear from day one that unfair trade practices will not be tolerated under this administration, and today we take one more step in fulfilling that promise”.
