Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced an affirmative preliminary circumvention ruling involving diamond sawblades and parts thereof, finding that diamond sawblades produced in Canada, using cores and segments of Chinese origin, are circumventing the existing antidumping duty order.

This circumvention inquiry only covers one Canadian company, Protech Diamond Tools Inc. Accordingly, Commerce will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to suspend liquidation and to require a cash deposit of estimated duties on unliquidated entries of diamond sawblades produced, by Protech in Canada, using Chinese cores and Chinese segments. The applicable cash deposit rate will be equal to the rate previously established for the China-wide entity – 82.05 percent.

Commerce expects to issue its final ruling by February 24, 2020.

U.S. law provides that Commerce may find circumvention of antidumping or countervailing duty orders when merchandise subject to an existing order is completed or assembled in a third country from parts and components imported from the country subject to the order.

The strict enforcement of U.S. trade law is a primary focus of the Trump Administration. Since the beginning of the current Administration, Commerce has issued 30 preliminary or final affirmative determinations in anti-circumvention inquiries – a 233 percent increase from the number of such determinations made during the comparable period in the previous administration.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Enforcement and Compliance unit within the International Trade Administration is responsible for vigorously enforcing U.S. trade law and does so through an impartial, transparent process that abides by international rules and is based on factual evidence provided on the record.