Aluminum Industry Files Case Against Imports Of Aluminum Foil From Five Countries

The Aluminum Association’s Foil Trade Enforcement Working Group has filed antidumping and countervailing duty petitions alleging that unfairly traded imports of aluminum foil from five countries are causing material injury to the domestic industry. The petition was submitted concurrently to the U.S. International Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Commerce. The five countries named in the petition are: Armenia, Brazil, Oman, Russia, and Turkey.

In a press release, Aluminum Association President and CEO Tom Dobbins said, “We continue to see how persistent aluminum overcapacity driven by structural subsidies in China harms the entire sector. While domestic aluminum foil producers were able to invest and expand following the initial targeted trade enforcement action against imports from China in 2018, those gains were short lived. As Chinese imports receded from the U.S. market, they were replaced by a surge of unfairly-traded aluminum foil imports that are injuring the U.S. industry.”

The petition comes after an April 2018 U.S. Department of Commerce order to impose antidumping and countervailing duty orders on similar foil products from China. The Aluminum Association said, “Existing unfair trade orders in the United States have prompted Chinese producers to shift exports of aluminum foil to other foreign markets, which has resulted in producers in those countries exporting their own production to the United States.”

The Association’s petition alleges imports from the five countries are being dumped in the United States at margins up to 107.61 percent.