You do not have to tell U.S. extruders what it feels like to be under a deluge of imports.  The industry went through this 14 years ago with China.  Now, it is happening again.  This has been a slow buildup starting back in 2018-2019.  After the Aluminum 232 began, we did see a dip in imported extrusions.  However, by mid-2018 the protection began to fade.  Just prior to the chaos brought upon us by the COVID pandemic, the U.S. government inexplicably dropped the extrusion tariffs and the flood gates started opening.  Since late 2020 we have seen the domestic market percentage of the U.S. market collapse to a level we have not experienced since 2010 – the last year before the China tariffs took full effect. We made every effort to thwart this trend.  When we identified imports as eligible to be covered by our orders, we made a scope challenge.  When we identified imports as transshipment or circumvention, we made an  Enforce and Pr...

 Over the last few weeks, the U.S. aluminum extrusion members in the AEC have been providing data to our legal team at Wiley Law.  Wiley has pulled the numbers together, and we are ready to update the members involved in the process.  To no one’s surprise, our industry continues to suffer escalating injury due to imports.  Now, having data through the third quarter of 2022, our next task will be to collect the fourth quarter’s data, too.  Everyone expects that data to validate a continuing deterioration in the domestic injury’s share of U.S. demand.  So, what is next?  The AEC will host a webinar on January 27th at 11 AM Central Time.  This meeting is for U.S. AEC Extruder Members only , and they can register for the event here .  In parallel to our efforts investigating a possible new trade case, we have been in ongoing discussions with the Department of Commerce (DOC) seeking the reinstatement of the Aluminum 232 extrusion tariffs.  At...

Over the last month, the Aluminum Extruders Council (AEC) has been collecting trade data and making an all-out push at the Department of Commerce (DOC) to have our Aluminum 232 aluminum extrusion tariffs reinstated.  We are working as fast as we can to find a path to relief while facing the twin threat of a slowing economy and rising imports.   AEC U.S. extrusion members have dutifully submitted data to our trade attorneys so they can aggregate the information and confirm the injury many of us are feeling.  Currently, we are wrapping up the Q3 data set, and after the first of the year, we will ask for Q4 results.  Our attorneys will continue to aggregate the results to determine two things: confirmation of injury, and the duties we would expect to win, should we prevail. Having already reviewed the data from our Sunset Review earlier this year, we know at this point that we do have a case.  However, the second piece of the puzzle is even more important, whi...

 Last month I held an emergency webinar to discuss breakthroughs in our 232 aluminum tariff discussions with the Department of Commerce (DOC).  Efforts to get our message to the DOC seem to be paying off–for now.  The DOC has asked our U.S. extrusion industry to make the case to have our 232 aluminum extrusion tariffs put back in place.  In my webinar, I walked through the data they want us to provide.  Many of you have done so, and I thank you!  However, others haven’t yet done so.  We need you – all of you – to help in this effort.  We may not get another shot at this.  So, let’s get it done. The hope is that reinstatement of the 232 aluminum extrusion tariffs will dull the growing imports we are seeing.  I don’t think it will solve all our problems, but it may take some of the noise out of the system so we can see which countries are truly strategic threats.  I think we all agree that we should not initiate a trade case unless we...

 Earlier this month the Department of Commerce made it official and renewed our anti-dumping/countervailing duties (AD/CVD) orders against China for another five years.  There was little drama in the announcement as we were aware as early as April that the orders were to be extended.  However, it took several months for the process to grind its way to a conclusion.  And frankly, given the reversals we’ve seen from D.C. this year, we could never be too sure!  However, it is good to have that behind us.  I want to thank everyone who contributed data this time.  We had a great turnout and that went a long way to securing the win.  Since the Sunset Review was essentially concluded earlier this year, it freed up our Fair-Trade budget to continue our work in other areas.  So, this summer we’ve been focusing on the 232, the Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) petitions, and growing imports.  Our excellent Hill Day in Washington, DC, allowed us a cha...

 The summer of 2022 has been a disappointment to our Fair Trade efforts.  We continue to see our share of the domestic market shrink as foreign competitors enjoy a discount to U.S. aluminum prices, courtesy of the U.S. Aluminum 232.  The lack of minimum aluminum content requirements in the USMCA is creating a new threat south of our border.   China’s Belt and Road strategy has established a growing extrusion operation in the Dominican Republic with rumors of more facilities to come in Latin America.  Our trade case continues to battle key scope issues with an administration that seems to have a deaf ear to our position.  Trade enforcement wins have turned to defeats without so much as an explanation.  This horrible combination of self-defeating U.S. policy and an administration in place that has been the softest defender of U.S. industry since Obama that left us in a position that requires us to make some very difficult decisions. The aftermath of...

With the news that U.S. Customs did, in fact, reverse itself in the Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) petitions filed against Kingtom, it seems as though the EAPA program is in jeopardy .  When the EAPA program was initiated, the Federal Government intended to blend the best aspects of the Department of Commerce and U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s fight against illegal trade.  Suspected circumvention/transshipment activity would be handled in a transparent way with critical deadlines to ensure the investigation stayed on course.  Furthermore, the evidence required needed to meet a “preponderance of the evidence” standard versus “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard.  Because of these changes, the AEC and many other U.S. industries in trade disputes, embraced the EAPA program and has filed more than 10 EAPA claims since its inception.  Our success rate has been very high, and we believe it did affect trade activity and benefitted the domestic industry. However, ...