Today, in an unprecedented action, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced the final results of an annual administrative review of the antidumping duty order on imports of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) from the Republic of Korea. The Department of Commerce has found that Korean steel producers have been unfairly dumping OCTG in the U.S. market, hurting American workers and businesses.

The Department is exercising its authority under Congress for the first time to address market distortions in the production of foreign merchandise, and to calculate dumping margins that more accurately account for the unfair pricing practices of foreign exporters. Section 504 of the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015 is a vital instrument in helping to identify distortions in the market that can enable and facilitate dumping practices.

During the period covered by this administrative review (July 2014 to August 2015), OCTG imports from Korea were valued at an estimated $1.1 billion, accounting for nearly 25 percent of all U.S. imports of OCTG. The dumping margins, or the rate at which the imported materials were sold below fair value in the United States, were found to range from 2.76 percent to 24.92 percent.

“There is fair and unfair trade, and the distinction is not very hard to make,” said Secretary Ross. “We will not stand for the distortions in foreign markets being used against U.S. businesses. The Trump Administration will continue to employ all of the tools provided under the law to take swift action against harmful trade practices from foreign nations attempting to take advantage of our markets, workers, and businesses.”

As a result of this determination, the Department of Commerce will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to assess duties and collect cash deposits equal to the dumping margins found on all imports of the subject goods from Korea. These assessed duties and cash deposits provide U.S. businesses and workers with relief from the harmful effects of dumped goods in the United States, ensuring each nation’s businesses play on a level field.

The finding of this review concluded that prices of the hot-rolled coil used to produce OCTG, as well as Korean electricity prices, are distorted. OCTG is a product used primarily by the oil and gas industries in drilling and extraction operations for lining the casing of oil wells as well as comprising the tubing which delivers oil and gas to the surface.