The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) has determined that a U.S. industry is threatened with material injury by reason of imports of certain mobile access equipment and subassemblies thereof from China that the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) has determined are subsidized by the government of China.
The ITC determination follows a February 2021 petition filed by the Coalition of American Manufacturers of Mobile Access Equipment (CAMMAE), which has successfully shown that imports of mobile access equipment that are highly subsidized by the Chinese government are threatening to materially injure the U.S. industry.
Chair Jason E. Kearns, Vice Chair Randolph J. Stayin, and Commissioners David S. Johanson, Rhonda K. Schmidtlein, and Amy A. Karpel made affirmative threat determinations. The Commission’s public report ‘Certain Mobile Access Equipment and Subassemblies Thereof from China’ (Inv. Nos. 701-TA-665 (Final), USITC Publication 5242, December 2021) will contain the views of the Commission and information developed during the investigation.
As a result of the Commission’s affirmative threat determination, the DOC will issue a countervailing duty (CVD) order on imports of mobile access equipment imported from China including scissor lifts, boom lifts, and telehandlers.
Countervailing duties will be imposed at rates ranging from 11.97 percent to 448.80 percent. These duties will be added on top of the 25 percent Section 301 duties that currently apply to these products, and they apply to mobile access equipment and major subassemblies of such equipment. The CVD order will remain in effect for a minimum of five years, and there is an opportunity each year for duty rates to increase retroactively, through the annual administrative review process. Duty evasion, absorption and circumvention are strictly illegal.
The DOC is in the process of finishing its investigation in the companion antidumping duty (AD) case. Preliminary AD duties ranging from 17.78 percent to 275.06 percent are also currently in effect. The DOC will issue its final AD determination in February 2022, and then the ITC will make its final determination in the AD case. The CAMMAE anticipates an affirmative final AD determination at both agencies, at which point an AD order will also be issued, imposing final dumping duties on top of the final subsidy duties that already apply.