In the last few weeks we have advanced several open issues important to our trade case against China.  Meanwhile, critical macro-political issues remain open and pose risks to our market in 2019.  Let’s first discuss our case. The Seventh Administrative Review is underway.  Preliminary results are expected in late January 2019.  The AEC withdrew its requests for mandatory respondents in October.  The Department of Commerce (DOC) will be selecting respondents in December. Given the history of reviews in recent years, there is a high likelihood that no respondents will come forward and rates will remain as they are today: 80% on the dumping case and 26% for the subsidy case. Scope issues continue to be the most active legal element of our orders.  Working with Endura Products, we continue to push the DOC for a decision in the door threshold cases.  We are waiting for the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to announce the date of t...

This month our focus has been on the upcoming hearing for the appeal on the 5050 decision. AEC’s legal team has been preparing the Departments of Justice and Commerce for their upcoming litigation at the Court of International Trade.  Tai-Ao filed an appeal of the Department’s final 5050 circumvention determination, filing its summons on August 11, 2017 and complaint on August 31, 2017.  Our motion to intervene was granted on September 28, 2017.  This case has been consolidated with Regal’s appeal of the circumvention determination.  We filed response briefs on September 27, 2018 as did the Department of Justice.  Plaintiff’s reply briefs are due November 15, 2018.  After all the briefs have been submitted, oral arguments will be scheduled.  Most likely this will take place in the first quarter of 2019. The 7th Administrative Review is underway.  We withdrew our Anti-dumping/coutervailing duties (AD/CVD) review requests on October 10, 2018....

Our 6th Annual Administrative Review results have been announced.  As previously reported, the Department of Commerce (DOC) maintained extrusion tariffs at 86.01% for our subsidy, or countervailing duty (CVD), case and 20% for our anti-dumping (AD) case.  The combined duty of 106% has been stable since 2016.  This is a good number for the industry, which continues to contain Chinese aluminum extrusion at less than 1% market share. Furthermore, the DOC also assigned the Adverse Facts Available (AFA) rate of 198.61% to the two mandatory respondents, Liaoning Zhongwang Group Co., Ltd. and Liaoyang Zhongwang Aluminum Profile Co. Ltd., which has been the AFA rate since the 5th review.  The 7th Annual Administrative Review has begun with the selection of mandatory respondents.  Elsewhere in our case, there is nothing new to report on the scope issues we are battling.  We continue to wait for court dates or decisions depending on the matter.  Our trade enfo...

I am happy to report that things are going well for us in our ongoing trade case against Chinese extruders.  The Seventh Administrative Review has commenced, scope issues and  results are falling our way, and we continue to make progress in our trade enforcement efforts.  Mandatory respondents are being confirmed for the Seventh Administrative Review.  We have asked the Department of Commerce to select at least one curtain wall and one door threshold exporter.  This helps us in the review and in the scope challenges involving both of those end uses.  Furthermore, we plan to maintain our position that the other elements that make up a curtain wall unit or door threshold, which are subsidized like the extrusions, be subject to the review.  Winning this argument keeps the rates high.  As a reminder, the current countervailing duty is 20% and the anti-dumping rate is 86% for a total duty of 106%.  This grueling process will go on for a few mont...

On Thursday, May 31, President Trump announced that he is “taking action to protect America’s national security from the effects of global oversupply of steel and aluminum” by imposing a 10% tariff on aluminum imports from some of our strongest allies and aluminum industry partners: Canada, Mexico and the European Union.  The implementation of these tariffs follows “extensive discussions and a months-long process” after the initial proclamations in March. In an article posted on whitehouse.gov , the statement notes that “[the] President made it clear that the Administration was willing to work with those countries to find separate arrangements that would meet the national security requirements of the United States.” The statement goes on to read, “Current quantities and circumstances of steel and aluminum imports into the United States threaten to impair national security. These excessive imports are driven in large part by the worldwide glut from overproduction by other countries....

It’s sometimes hard to remember that the AEC has a trade case against China.  With all of the news regarding the 232 Investigation , the Russian Sanctions, and the fallout we’ve experienced , I find myself having to leave tasks on my calendar to be sure I am dialed into the ins and outs of our anti-dumping/countervailing duties (AD/CVD) cases.  When I do review the cases and get dialed in again, I am quite happy with how it’s going. That’s because our initiatives are starting to gain traction.  Take, for example, our Vietnam Circumvention case.  The deadline for filing briefs in this matter has come and gone with no reply from the other side.  Therefore, we are in a strong position to ask the Department of Commerce for their preliminary ruling so that duties can be applied at once.  The final ruling in this matter is due December 24, 2018.  However, the sooner we can get to a preliminary decision, the better for our domestic industry.  There wil...

This month we will look at the 232 Investigation and provide an update on our Fair Trade case.  After having lived, eaten, and slept the 232 Investigation for the last 11 months, it is hard to believe it’s nearly over.  I say nearly over, because the aluminum industry now has an opportunity to seek exclusions by country or product.  Furthermore, the President has made it clear to excluded countries that they are only conditionally excluded pending the outcome of other trade negotiations.  Nevertheless, the AEC’s shuttle diplomacy to Washington D.C. on this matter is, for all intents and purposes, complete. Countries and individual companies have already started to seek exclusions.  Both Canada and Mexico were initially excluded, based on a positive outcome to the ongoing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiations.  Other countries have also been excluded since the announcement.  Now we are seeing and hearing of many companies coming f...

Well, our year is off and running with a bang. Scope issues, Administrative Review, and circumvention top our list in early 2018. This month we learned that there will be an appeal in the curtain wall scope case.  Permasteelisa and Jangho filed a notice of appeal last week.  It is expected that Yuanda will almost surely file their own notice of appeal by the deadline, which is February 12. The Chinese industry signaled that they would appeal in a recent article in US Glass magazine .    Additionally, our scope challenge related to door thresholds continues to move forward.  This is a significant case because door thresholds are expressly mentioned as subject merchandise in our trade orders.  So, to lose this application could open the door to many applications clearly covered by our case.  Finally, we continue to await the judges’ (there are more than one judge at the CIT) decision in the appliance handles cases we defended last fall.  We beli...

This month, our update is more forward looking than a review.  All eyes are on the 232 Investigation and what policy decisions will come from the President when the report is issued to him later this month. The AEC will issue a trade alert as soon as we hear anything in this regard. This year, most of our Fair Trade efforts will be focused on trade enforcement.  For several months we have collected data and have collaborated with others in an effort to identify those that are working to evade duties through circumvention and transshipment schemes.  Members will see a series of announcements in this area in the coming weeks.  Just last week, the AEC filed a new circumvention petition on Chinese extrusions being circumvented through Vietnam. Scope issues are still being pursued in the door threshold and curtain wall cases.  Last year’s decision in the curtain wall case in our favor maintains the Curtain Wall Coalition ’s winning streak.  However, as we ...