Commerce Department Issues Preliminary Affirmative Antidumping Determination on Chassis and Subassemblies Thereof from China

Washington, DC – On February 26, the U.S. Department of Commerce preliminarily found that Chinese producers have sold chassis and chassis subassemblies into the United States at less than fair value, in violation of international trade law. Both mandatory respondents, CIMC and Fuwa/AXN, were found to be part of the China-wide entity. As a result, Commerce has imposed preliminary antidumping duties on all Chinese imports of 188%. The Coalition of American Chassis Manufacturers, an alliance of U.S. intermodal chassis manufacturers that filed this case, commends Commerce for its hard work on these investigations and urges Commerce to uphold this finding in its final determination.

This determination establishes the preliminary duty margin in the antidumping portion of the investigation. Following the publication of the determination in the Federal Register, Commerce will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to begin suspending liquidation and collecting preliminary antidumping duties (in the form of cash deposits) on entries of chassis and chassis subassemblies from China. These duties will be added to the preliminary subsidy duties of 38.52% already in place on Chinese imports.

The Department’s final determination is currently expected in mid-May but may be extended. The U.S. International Trade Commission’s final determination is currently scheduled for late April 2021.

“Commerce’s preliminary finding of unfair and illegal dumping by state-owned Chinese producers is another key step in remedying the persistent harm these companies have caused the U.S. industry,” said Robert E. DeFrancesco, trade counsel to the Coalition and a partner in the International Trade Practice at Wiley. “The imposition of these dumping rates on all Chinese producers and exporters has allowed the U.S. industry to begin rapidly rehiring its work force and ramping up production to meet industry demands in anticipation of a fairly traded market.”

As a reminder, duties are assessed on the importer of record of the merchandise. Duty evasion, absorption, and circumvention are illegal and closely monitored by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in conjunction with the Commerce Department.

The Coalition of American Chassis Manufacturers remains committed to addressing the unfair trade practices of China, including dumping and subsidizing of chassis entered into the United States.