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AEC Sharpens Fair Trade Focus after Win in Sunset Review

 I am delighted to report that the Department of Commerce has renewed our trade orders for another five years.  This time, the Sunset Review was a rout.  With no opposition to our filing, Commerce decided to expedite its decision, thus freeing us from a long and expensive full hearing this fall.  There was very little doubt our orders would be renewed, but we did not know how long it would take or how much it would cost.  Now we know.  

This summer we will be building on the momentum of our Sunset Review victory by focusing on two issues still unresolved: the Kingtom case, and the Aluminum 232 extrusion tariffs.  Both issues will take all of our focus.  

The Kingtom case took an unexpected turn a few weeks ago during the appeal of the first Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) case against them filed by Ta Chen.  Initially, Customs sided with Ta Chen and found that Kingtom was comingling Chinese-produced extrusions with Dominican extrusions for export to the U.S.  Following that, we filed two EAPA claims.  In all three matters Customs agreed that the evidence proved Kingtom had to be comingling extrusions with Chinese production in order to run the shapes and have the capacity to ship the volumes they were exporting to the U.S.  Unfortunately, Customs has reversed its findings in the Ta Chen case and will be looking closely at ours.  This is critical as we were also successful in persuading Commerce to extend our Chinese tariffs to Kingtom because of the comingling charge.  This could be a matter of when the first domino falls then they all fall.  Of course, we will not sit by and let this happen.

All this Kingtom legal maneuvering comes while Kingtom has been shut down by the Dominican government for labor abuses.  As AEC members know, Customs uncovered worker abuses during their onsite inspection of Kingtom during our third EAPA claim.  That information was communicated by Customs to the Dominican government who has responded by shutting them down.  Even so, we are not satisfied with this and will continue to pursue our Withhold Release Order (WRO) against Kingtom asking the U.S. government to forbid U.S. imports from Kingtom.  Both the EAPA appeals and the WRO are fluid issues and a huge focus for us this summer.

Next month, the Biden Administration will hold public hearings on the Section 232.  We have petitioned Commerce seeking reinstatement of the aluminum 232 tariffs on extrusions.  Since Commerce unilaterally dropped those tariffs, imports into the U.S. have surged.  From Mexico to Vietnam, imports now sit at 25% market share.  This is the highest level of import penetration since we filed our trade case against China.  Recently, we have been working with certain legislators to gain their support in carrying our message to Commerce.  I also met with officials from Commerce and Customs last week to discuss the Kingtom and 232 issues.  They are putting me in touch with the person in charge of the extrusion portion of the 232 program.  I am hopeful I can be persuasive about our position.  We not only need the tariffs put back in place, but we need an exclusion process that recognizes that dies may have to be built to make an objection to an exclusion request, and we need the AEC to be able to object on behalf of the industry.

These are critical issues for our industry at a time when our trade case is busier than ever.  Now that the Sunset Review is behind us, we can bear down on these two remaining hot topics.  As always, I will keep you posted.  Thank you for your continued support!


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