Commerce Preliminary Scope Ruling Risks Open Door for Circumvention, Petitioner Says

The Commerce Department should close a potential loophole it looks set to create in a scope ruling on whether self-drilling anchor bolt systems (SDABS) imported by Midwest Diversified Technologies are subject to antidumping and countervailing duties on forged steel fittings from China (A-570-067/C-570-068), Bonney Forge said in comments filed June 7 on a preliminary scope ruling.

The agency on May 17 preliminarily found the SDABS are not covered by forged steel fittings duties because they are not “forged” for the purposes of the AD/CVD orders, noting that the couplings lack any pressure rating at all to indicate them as forged (see 2105200027). “Bonney Forge is concerned that a ruling the SDABS couplers are not within the scope because of a lack of pressure rating will open the door for circumvention of the order by shipping forged steel fittings without pressure ratings,” said Bonney Forge, petitioner in the case. “Any final scope determination should be clear that the lack of pressure rating on a product should not be dispositive regarding whether that product is within the scope.”