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Growing Threat From Vietnam, Malaysia

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For those of you who attended last month’s Annual Meeting & Leadership Conference, you are well aware of the growing threats we are seeing in the market.  While our own case continues to hold up nicely, there are a variety of issues involving trade enforcement that are becoming the front-and-center issue of our trade orders.  To that end, our lead attorney, Robert DeFrancesco, discussed the opportunities that may arise from the new administration.  Afterwards, we participated in our annual Town Hall and discussed these growing threats and how we may be able to approach Washington with the hope of more help.

Story after story from the members in attendance discussed the increased shipments from Vietnam and Malaysia, and their impact in certain markets.  For many of us, it sounded like “deja vu all over again”!  However, we do have a variety of options, and in the weeks to come we will be exploring those options.  With the new administration beginning to discuss trade and trade policy, we seek to be a part of that discussion in order to address these challenges sooner rather than later.

Aside from trade enforcement, there are other key issues awaiting decisions.  We expect a final determination from the Department of Commerce (DOC) regarding the 5050 alloy circumvention case.  In its preliminary decision, the DOC ruled this as a circumvention scheme.  We fully expect them to stay the course in their final determination due to be released soon.  Also, we filed another scope clarification about the so-called pallets.  In this round we are asking the DOC to call the 6000-series alloyed extrusions in these chunks of aluminum as covered by our orders.  We are confident they will do so.

The fifth administrative review is coming to an end, and there is only one company that has responded.  With the sixth administrative review slated for early summer, it will be interesting to see how the DOC reacts if NO Chinese companies come forward.  If that is the case, it creates a great argument for us that the duties are obviously too low, or else companies would be coming forward to seek a lower rate.  We’ve used this in the past, but in the next round it may be more persuasive.

Be sure to keep up to date on developments on our website, AECFairTrade.org.

Thank you for your continued support!

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