U.S. Duties on Pipes From China Approved

[pampango]

Source: New York Times

An American trade panel gave final approval on Wednesday for duties of 10 to 16 percent on Chinese-made steel pipe in the biggest United States trade case to date against China. The panel, the International Trade Commission, voted 6-0 in favor of the duties set by the Commerce Department to offset Chinese government subsidies.

The United States imported $2.74 billion of the “oil country tubular goods” from China in 2008, more than triple the previous year, as a surge in oil prices led to increased demand for the oil well pipe. The vote caps a year of United States-China trade friction.

The United Steelworkers union, which was the driving force behind the tires case, joined with the Maverick Tube Corporation, the United States Steel Corporation and other American manufacturers in asking for import duties on Chinese-made pipe. The vote Wednesday clears the way for the Commerce Department to impose final countervailing duties ranging from 10.36 percent to 15.78 percent on the pipe to offset Chinese government subsidies, as announced on Nov. 24.

The Commerce Department has also announced preliminary antidumping duties ranging up to 99 percent on the pipe and is expected to announce its final decision on the size of those additional duties in early April.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/business/global/31steel.html

[groundloop]

1. I hope we inspected the hell out of those Chinese pipes

The company I work for from time to time evaluates Chinese products to see if any would be suitable to import. In the tests I have seen these products have been miserable failures.

[rgbecker]

2. All the junk from China is going to come back to bite us.

Whatever it is, it seems like they are setting us up for a total melt down. The toaster oven is a joke. I swear it's all programed to fall apart right after the entire industrial base of the US has been sent overseas. They have taken the lead on solar panels and when the cars are all made there, we can forget about any talk about the US being the standard of world.

As an aside, does anyone know what type of electricity the Chinese are using...is it 110 like the US or 220 like europe or something entirely different?

[Moosepoop]

3. Will this bring the cost of Chinese pipe more in line with ours?

I don't know the cost difference between pipes from China and those manufactured here -- I'm sure the labor cost is still lower over there but hopefully the new duties imposed (combined with shipping costs) will offset the difference enough to encourage buying from U.S. companies, thereby restoring lost jobs.

Is this a possibility, or am I dreamin'?

On edit: Meant to reply to the OP, not to reply #2.

[jmowreader]

9. China uses 220v/50Hz power

[rgbecker]

12. Thanks for that info. Like Europe it seems.

[MindPilot]

4. Oh THOSE kinds of pipes.

Never mind. :D

[uncle ray]

8. we need some duties on the other kind too.

american glass blowers and machinists need our support too.

[salguine]

5. You know, American workers used to know how to make steel pipe. Given the chance,

I'll bet they could do it again.

[hedgehog]

6. My great grandfather had the first patent on making seamless

steel pipe, so an American worker invented steel pipe..




'course, I think his father came over from Ireland.

[WriteDown]

7. Still trying to figure out how this is going to work with our trade deficit,,,

Nothing will change until Americans strive to buy made in the USA items.

[greengestalt]

10. Analogy of the Dam

The real thing that should get people rioting is that it often costs MORE to make things overseas. I've heard one pig after another, or rather the toadies who think they'll "Elevate" them if they suck ---- hard enough explain the process, and they make it sound good on paper. Except I've checked into it and I know some people who live on that end of the world.

1. They make a lot of "Paperwork Savings" by the low wages/cost.
-but- they leave out other factors.
2. The chief of police's nephew, and dozens of other petty, but potentially disruptive officials walk in all times of day and demand "Tea Money" or outright bribery.
3. The very "Subcontractors" they use use their own equipment to make knock-offs, to pirate their product.
4. The quality - well, it went from "Made in the USA" pride to "Liability lawsuit waiting to happen."
5. Last and certainly worst, there's the cost of FUEL to transport over such a long distance. That alone made the difference in wages, even in the 90s when this went from a scary trend to a flood.


So, if a business uses the threat of an overseas move to hold wages stagnant, then moves overseas anyways, but then it turns into a loss through all the 'expenses' well, why don't they come crawling back?

"Tax Breaks and Subsidies"

They lobby government and get paid out of tax money to ensure a profit. They use "New Deal" era measures to finance loss of jobs in the states.


I make the analogy of a dam. Say a rich elite guy in a mansion by the artificial lake a dam creates sees his power bill; "$200 a month!? Am I no entitled to the SWEAT of my BROW!?" And his toadie goes "Actually, sir, with our accounting your bill is not $2000 a month-" And his boss raves "Am I not entitled to the Sweat of my Brow!?" So the toady goes and punches a hole in the side of the dam, and sets up a paddle wheel to generate "Free" electricity from the stream of water. However, every part of energy they take costs the real generator 9 parts of energy. It's just that the dam has so much potential built up, no one notices. They could also endure this man's theft, but the word spreads along the elite crowd and when they see the man doing it isn't arrested, they want in too. Soon the dam is full of visible leaks as toadies work with hammer drills and shaped charges desperately trying to please their employers. And it works, though the power bill goes up for most other people and overall the price is far more than the elites "Earned" by doing this. But then the artificial lake is lower because of the lowered water potential and they have trouble climbing into their boats, and also they get their fishing hooks snagged on drowned trees. So they scream for other rivers to be diverted to make water go into the dam faster, even as they are punching more holes to make up for the holes that are now above the water potential level, and they intend to exploit all leaks...


Now, one doesn't have to be a "Structural Engineer" to know it's not a good idea and soon the whole system will collapse catastrophically...

[notadmblnd]

11. what ever has been built using those chinese pipes is going to crumble

within a few years.