The U.S. Commerce Department said on Tuesday that it increased anti-dumping duties on oil and gas drilling pipes from South Korea, applying new legal tools that allow for more comprehensive calculations of foreign cost distortions.
Following an administrative review, the department lifted duties on oil country tubular goods to a range of 2.76 percent to 24.9 percent from a previous range of about 4 percent to 6.5 percent.
The decision was the first to be made under a provision of the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015 that allows the Commerce Department to consider a “particular market situation” such as foreign subsidies for raw materials.
In the case of the South Korean oil country tubular goods, that included not only cost calculations for the production of the pipes, but price distortions for the hot-rolled steel used in the pipes that are caused by subsidized electricity.
“We will not stand for the distortions in foreign markets being used against U.S. businesses,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in a statement.
