South Korea Proposes Imposition of Anti-Dumping Duty on Stainless Steel Bars Import

According to the latest updates, the South Korean Trade Commission (SKTC) has proposed anti-dumping duty on the imports of stainless steel bars coming from Italy and Taiwan.

The country's trade ministry quoted that the domestic market for stainless steel bars was worth about Won 300 billion (USD 266.4 million) in 2017, or 100,000 tonnes, and Taiwanese and Italian products accounted for about 10% of it.

Thus, in order to protect the domestic steel industry from the damage caused due to cheap imports, the trade commission has proposed to impose duties of 9.47%-18.56% and 10.21%-13.74% on stainless steel bars from Taiwan and Italy, respectively.

However, nine Italian stainless steel bar products are being excluded from the duties as they are not produced by South Korean companies, such as stainless steel bars used for automobile parts.

Taiwan's Walsin Lihwa Corp. faces a tariff of 9.47% while Gloria Material Technology Corp. will be slapped with 18.56%. All other Taiwanese suppliers face 13.14% in tariffs. For Italian producers, a tariff of 10.21% will be imposed on Acciaierie Valbruna while Cogne Acciai Speciali will get 13.74%. All other Italian producers will be hit with a tariff of 11.97%.

South Korea's concern over EU safeguards on steel

On the other hand South Korea is worried over the European Union's (EU) potential safeguard against steel products and has claimed that the ongoing investigation of EU over steel imports does not meet World Trade Organization (WTO) standards.

EU has kicked off an investigation against the country's steel products in August last year, amid concern over an influx of South Korean steel into the region amid global protectionism policies.

However, Seoul is emphasizing that the EU probes are not compliant with standards set by the WTO, as the South Korean steel products are not anticipated to cause significant damage in industries nor a reported sharp increase in shipments to the region. South Korean companies are urging the EU to end the on-going investigation and consider excluding major steel products from the potential safeguard.

It is also being suggested that if a safeguard measure is inevitable, then EU should at least exempt steel products for automobiles and gas pipes whose demand cannot be met with regional production.