Turkish exporters welcome US decision to drop steel duties

22/09/2014 12:00 - 490 Views

Todays Zaman reported that Turkish steel bar exporters have welcomed decision from the US Commerce Department to drop the steel duties imposed on their products.

Mr Namik Ekinci chaiman of Turkish Steel Exporters Union said that the union had been declaring through all available channels that Turkish steel exporters are not involved in damping, as the American courts have just agreed.

Mr Ekinci highlighted that he had faith in the integrity of Turkish exporters, who had only been waiting for a fair trial. It would set an example for other countries, some of which have also accused Turkish steel producers of involvement in damping.

Mr Ekinci said that the court ruling that Turkish steel producers were granted 1.25% of export subsidies by Turkish government will be appealed by Turkish producers in the coming days.

On Tuesday, the US Commerce Department dropped a preliminary decision to impose anti dumping duties on steel rebar imports from Turkey, in a ruling US rebar producers described as shocking because they believed they had a strong case.

At the same time, the Commerce Department confirmed duties on Mexican material of up to 66.7%, a move at least one Mexican producer said would severely hurt that country's rebar industry.

The ruling on Turkey reverses a preliminary decision in April that would have imposed duties of up to 2.6% on the country's imports of rebar, which is used to reinforce concrete.

The Rebar Trade Action Coalition, a group comprised of the five US based producers involved said that we are shocked that the Commerce Department failed to find dumping against Turkish rebar companies.

The group sued last year, accusing the two countries of selling rebar at unfairly low prices, essentially undercutting US prices to grab sales and market share. We also were surprised that the subsidy findings on Turkish producers were not found to be at higher levels.

Source: Todays Zaman