The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has issued a unanimous, 5-0 preliminary determination that imports of utility-scale wind towers from China and Vietnam have materially injured the domestic wind energy industry.
The case was brought by the Wind Tower Trade Coalition (WTTC), a group of U.S. manufacturers of utility-scale wind towers, and alleges that unfairly dumped wind towers from China and Vietnam and subsidized wind towers from China are injuring the U.S. industry.
Prior to this most recent vote by the ITC, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) initiated three formal investigations into imports of utility-scale wind towers from China and Vietnam, and found that there was, indeed, reason to believe that Chinese producers were dumping utility-scale wind towers into the U.S. at margins up to 213.54% and that Vietnamese producers were dumping utility-scale wind towers into the U.S. at margins between 140.54% and 143.29% of the value of the goods.
The DOC also decided to investigate subsidy programs used by all levels of the Chinese government to support its wind turbine industry. The most recent ruling from ITC confirms that the dumped Chinese imports are injuring the U.S. wind power industry.
The ITC's affirmative preliminary injury determination clears the way for the DOC to continue moving forward with its investigation. Without any extensions, the DOC would issue its preliminary countervailing duty determination by March 23 and its preliminary dumping determination by June 6.
If the DOC rules in favor of the U.S. wind industry, countervailing and anti-dumping duties will be collected, at those times, in the amount of the preliminary margins calculated by DOC.
‘We are pleased with the commission's affirmative determination, and we look forward to advancing to the next stages to protect the domestic wind tower industry and its workers from the harm caused by unfairly traded imports," notes Alan Price, lead counsel representing the WTTC and chairman of law firm Wiley Rein's International Trade Practice.
This is not the first anti-dumping case brought against China by the renewable energy industry; a coalition representing U.S. solar manufacturers also filed cases with the DOC and the ITC claiming illegal dumping and subsidies by China.
