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Sunset Review: Holding Our Breath

 The Aluminum Extruders Council has filed its formal petition to the International Trade Commission (ITC) seeking a five-year extension for our trade orders against China.  Thank you to all that contributed data for this effort!  We did really well!  We can boast that 85% of all U.S. extrusion volumes are represented in our filing.  This is a very strong number.  Moreover, the data indicates increasing distress upon our industry from imports.  With the combination of a strong showing by industry and clear evidence of injury from ongoing imports, our confidence is high.  So, why are we holding our breath?  Because we are hoping the ITC will grant us an expedited decision and renew our orders this spring.  That will save all of the headaches and expense of going through a full sunset review process.  In fact, this could save the AEC as much as $400,000.  It is a big deal.  Since no one else has filed in opposition to our petition, we are more than hopeful we will get the quick decision we want.  We will know by early May.

Elsewhere, we continue to focus on circumvention and transshipment issues.  There are seven active investigations at work.  Some of those have been filed, some are being prepared for filing, and others are still being investigated.  Our initiative to expand our trade enforcement budget is already paying dividends.  By my calculation, there are more than 125 million pounds of extrusions at stake for the domestic industry in these decisions collectively.  I believe this volume will come in handy to the industry, as many of us predict a downturn in demand in the coming months.

It's not just illegal activity that is hurting our market.  The Aluminum 232 continues to attract more foreign extruders into the U.S. market.  The Biden administration has finally decided to look at the program and has invited industry to comment.  We filed our comments two weeks ago, and now turn our attention to D.C. and Capitol Hill to get support for our position.  To this end, our lobbyists will be focused on key legislators sitting on critical committees and with a voice to the administration.  I have alerted those AEC members that are in one of these districts or states.  Your effort to provide the ‘voice of the industry’ will provide our lobbyists with the support they need to make a strong case.  We must do this.  Imports continue to grow and are approaching 25% of our market.  This is too high and will catch up to us should that downturn in demand occur.

Lastly, those of you at our conference in San Antonio learned that U.S. Customs officials conducting an on-site inspection at Kingtom uncovered massive worker abuses.  This information, collected by Customs, has enabled us to file a Withhold Release Order (WRO) against Kingtom.  According to U.S. trade law, any company located in a nation that is party to a U.S. trade agreement must abide by agreed upon worker rights.  Since the Dominican Republic is a trade partner of the U.S., this means Kingtom is subject to a WRO petition.  If successful, this would disallow Kingtom from exporting ANY extrusions to the U.S.  They would essentially be shut out from the U.S. market.  This would be a powerful message to Kingtom and the Chinese.  I will keep you posted on developments in this huge issue as they can be released.

So, in the next couple of weeks we will move from holding our breath to waiting to exhale as the forthcoming decision about our Sunset Review comes closer.  Look for a Trade Alert when it occurs.  In the meantime, any and all information you can provide us about trade evasion, transshipment, or unfair trade activities could be very helpful in our ongoing investigations.  

Thank you all for your continued support!


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