The volume of Viet Nam's steel nail exported to the US accounts for 17 per cent of the US import market share. — Photo bizlive.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The US Department of Commerce has announced anti-dumping duty and countervailing duty investigations into the imports of steel nails from seven countries and territories, including Viet Nam.

The Vietnam Competition Authority (VCA) reported on June 23 that steel nail imports from Taiwan, the Republic of Korea, Oman, Malaysia, Turkey and India would also be investigated.

The firm which petitioned for these investigations is the Mid- Continent Steel & Wire, Inc., a US steel nail manufacturer, which complained that steel nails from these economies are being unfairly dumped in the US. It requested DOC to investigate and impose duties on companies from these seven countries on May 29, 2014.

A statistic of the US Customs revealed that Viet Nam earned about US$43.7 million from exporting 39,000 tonnes of steel nails to the US, accounting for approximately 17 per cent of the US import market share.

The VCA reports that the complaint suggests imposition of duty of up to 323.99 per cent on Vietnamese imports and a subsidy that exceeds the minimum level.

The investigation was carried out from January 1, 2013 to December 30, 2013.

After receiving the results of the investigation, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) will issue its preliminary decision on July 14, 2014. If there is any evidence which proves that these imports are causing a loss or threatening to cause serious loss for the domestic steel nail industry, the lawsuit will be continued. Otherwise, the case will be closed.

This is the fourth anti-dumping and countervailing duty lawsuit the US has filed against Vietnamese products since 2011, following similar suits involving PE plastic bags, carbon-welded steel pipes and steel wire garment hangers. — VNS