Chinese found guilty of dumping steel pipe

The Chinese have been found guilty of dumping steel pipe in a case brought against the country by six pipemakers and the Steelworkers union. The International Trade Commission ruled unanimously in favor, which opens the door for a variety of anti-dumping penalties of up to 701 percent should be imposed on Chinese imports of circular welded pipe, which is used in a variety of construction jobs, such as home plumbing and sprinkler systems.

I say “should be,” as opposed to the original story saying “will be,” as you never know with the Bush Administration, which had to be pushed and prodded for years before it would agree to officially treat China as a market economy subject to sanctions for violating trade agreements.

The pipe case is the first to clear all the government hurdles for the tariffs to go into effect. Last year, the Commerce Department imposed penalty tariffs on imports of Chinese glossy paper, but the trade body blocked the tariffs by ruling that the domestic industry had not proven it was being materially harmed by the imports.

Some Congressional Democrats are talking about making it easier to file similar such suits.