Local carbon steel pipe makers on Friday said they welcome a WTO preliminary ruling in favor of Taiwan in a dumping dispute with Canada, as it is likely to lead to export opportunities.

“Canada’s unreasonable anti-dumping measures absolutely affected our shipments to Canadian customers in recent years,” Yieh Phui Enterprise Co Ltd (燁輝) vice president Chen Yung-hsien (陳永賢) told the Taipei Times by telephone.

The company is considering expanding in Canada next year, as Taiwanese steelmakers could sustain global price competitiveness if Taiwan wins the trade dispute and Canada must amend its laws, Chen said.

Carbon steel welded pipes make up about 5 percent of Yieh Phui’s revenues. The company distributes most of its products to domestic clients after Canada imposed anti-dumping tariffs on Taiwanese exporters in 2012, Chen said.

Last year, local steelmakers sold 2,818 tonnes of carbon steel welded pipes to Canada, according to data compiled by the Taiwan Steel and Iron Industries Association (台灣區鋼鐵公會).

The figure represents an 85.5 percent drop from 19,475 tonnes in 2011.

Taiwan took the dispute to the WTO in January last year, asking for a panel review of the case, after the two nations failed to come to any substantive agreement through bilateral trade consultation meetings.

After more than one year of review, the WTO panel found “both Canada’s anti-dumping measures, as well as its domestic anti-dumping legislation, violate WTO rules,” the Office of Trade Negotiations of the Executive Yuan said in a statement on Friday.

The WTO panel condemned Canada for failing to terminate its investigation into exporters having a de minimis dumping margin, which represents a margin of less than 2 percent of export prices, the office said.

A price range of less than 2 percent falls within the range of fair pricing for exporters, so Canada should not have slapped anti-dumping duties on Taiwan’s carbon steel welded pipe exporters, the office said.

The WTO panel found that several provisions of Canada’s underlying legislation are inconsistent with the Anti-Dumping Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade of 1994, which means Canada will have to amend its laws to comply with the panel’s ruling.

Due to the tariffs, Taiwanese exporters lost about US$20 million in revenue a year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said.

Chung Hung Steel Corp (中鴻鋼鐵) vice president Li I-hsiang (李逸湘) said the tariffs deterred the company from selling its steel products there.

“Carbon steel welded pipes are not our major products, but the anti-dumping tariff shows the [Canadian] government’s attitude toward steel trade,” Li said.

The two nations have 60 days to decide whether to appeal any of the panel’s findings and the final decision is likely to be made in the middle of next year, the office said.

Dec 26, 2016
Source: Taipei Times