Petitions made to the U.S. International Trade Commission to investigate trade policy infractions climbed in June, with five subsidy/dumping petitions and four intellectual property petitions filed. That represents an increase of 350% year over year. Two additional petitions for subsidies and dumping came in in the first two weeks of July, with an additional four IP cases in that period as well. 

Subsidy and dumping cases of note include cases covering copper pipe imports from Vietnam, twist ties from China and silicon metal — used in the production of steel as well as for semiconductors and solar panels — from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Kazakhstan and Malaysia.

The silicon metal case illustrates the sometimes neverending nature of trade complaints. Panjiva research of March 28, 2018, noted the end of a previous antidumping case relating to silicon metal. That case, which targeted imports from Australia, Brazil, Kazakhstan and Norway, resulted in a decision that although there was dumping, there was no injury to the U.S. industry. As noted in Panjiva's Basics report on AD/CV cases, that meant that tariffs were not applied.

It is worth noting that Kazakhstan is mentioned in the new complaint as well, indicating concerns that dumping behavior has continued. Panjiva data shows that imports from the countries named in the new complaint fell by 26.5% year over year in the three months to May 31.

Countries from the prior complaint excluding Kazakhstan still made up a larger proportion of imports — $189.6 million to $51.8 million dollars in 2019 — while falling by 53.9% year over year in the same period. Imports from Canada and other countries also fell, to 30.3% and 70.9% year over year, respectively. 

The COVID-19 pandemic may be pushing industries to file additional exemptions as well as skewing short-term trade flows. Yet, the new silicon case may end up in the same place as the previous if the U.S. ITC determines material injury still has not occurred.

Eric Oak is a researcher at Panjiva, which is a business line of S&P Global Market Intelligence, a division of S&P Global Inc. This content does not constitute investment advice, and the views and opinions expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of S&P Global Market Intelligence. Links are current at the time of publication. S&P Global Market Intelligence is not responsible if those links are unavailable later.