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 extrusio...

Events are unfolding rapidly in the Dominican Republic.  During our Annual Meeting last March, we discussed the Work Release Order (WRO) we filed based on the explosive report from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from their onsite inspection at the Kingtom facility in the Dominican Republic last fall.  In that report, Customs officials claim they received about 50 notes and texts from Dominican workers at the plant about worker abuse.  Just as we were prepared to kick off a massive public relations campaign to inform D.C. about our WRO, news surfaced that the Dominican government has closed Kingtom due to worker abuse.   Wow!  This unexpected development has helped us achieve our objective of stopping illegal and unfair trade activities from Kingtom.  Even so, we are following this closely on the ground and will still demand our government address our WRO and find in our favor.  We do not want to be dependent upon the Dominican government in t...

 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 pet...

 In one of the biggest decisions in Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC) history, the U.S. Commerce Department reached its final determination in the 9th Annual Administrative Review on Aluminum Extrusion imports from China.  In that decision, Commerce will apply China duties on all imports from Kingtom Aluminio SRL.  This decision is in step with their preliminary decision last summer.  The Kingtom imports will be faced with an 86.01% Anti-Dumping (AD) duty, and a Countervailing Duty (CVD) rate of 242.56% for a combined tariff of 328.57%!  As I write this report, we are still awaiting the public version of this decision.  Once we receive that and have more details, we will conduct a podcast with Wiley Law to discuss what comes next.   Kingtom has clearly injured our market since it became active.  So, seeing this result is good.  However, what is better is the precedent we are setting.  It is clear that China intends to build more fa...

 I have been working on the Fair Trade case either as a staffer or volunteer since late 2009, and I have never seen it be more active and explosive than it is today.  Our areas of focus continue to be our annual administrative review, scope challenges, trade enforcement, the 232, and now, our Sunset Review.  Let’s get to it.  Read this month’s Blog post to learn what’s in store in 2022.   We are awaiting the final decision from the Department of Commerce (DOC) in our Ninth Administrative Review.  Meanwhile, the Tenth Administrative Review has begun.  We expect to hear a final decision on the 9th Administrative Review on February 2, 2022.  In this action we have made the claim that since Kingtom is a Chinese owned and operated company and has been caught transshipping Chinese extrusions into the U.S., they should be subject to the duties in our case.  In the preliminary decision, the DOC agreed with us.  We are confident this ruling ...

Next year, 2022, will be the biggest year for the AEC’s Fair Trade Case since it was launched over 10 years ago.  So, my report his month is about our planning and preparation for all that we will be doing in 2022.  Transshipment, administrative reviews, EAPA cases, scope challenges, and of course, our Sunset Review will all be in full force next year.  Here is where we are now, as we prepare. The Fair Trade Committee is identifying the targets and scope of investigation for us to conduct in 2022.  With a new budget in place, we are empowered to begin. Several of you have been quite helpful.  Your inputs have helped us define exactly what it is we need to investigate.  I have been working with several of you in recent weeks to collect all we know to prep the investigators. We are convinced that transshipment is taking place.  Now, we need to gather the evidence.  As you know, this is not an area of work I can broadcast to the world (as much as I’d...

 Over the last few weeks, we have been working with our legal team to prepare for our Sunset Review.  We are now at a place where we need your help!  Later this month we will host a webinar to unveil this Review’s templates to capture our production and sales records.  The templates are essentially unchanged from our last review.  So, I don’t expect a lot of confusion about the data we need, but it does represent a lot of work! This Sunset Review could be much more challenging than our 2017 filing.  Our industry is strong.  Demand is up, lead times have been extended, and there have been huge investments made in plants, equipment, and people over the last ten years.  By some measure, it could be claimed that we are healthy and strong and ready to take on China without the duties.  However, we all know this is a ridiculous conclusion. Instead, we will want to argue that the only reason our industry has recovered and prospered is the fact that ...