CF Industries is urging the US Department of Commerce to levy countervailing duties against Russian UAN imports, a day after the International Trade Commission (ITC) voted to terminate the year's-long probe.
CF in a letter to Commerce today argues countervailing duties as finalized by the agency in June is "required by law" despite the ITC's vote yesterday, citing the Tariff Act of 1930. CF argues Russia is not a "Subsidies Agreement Country" as defined by the act and is subject to countervailing rates.
The producer in the 19 July letter cites the suspension of normal trade relations between the US and Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine as grounds to implement import penalties on Russian UAN.
President Joe Biden on 8 April signed the Suspending Normal Trade Relations with Russian and Belarus Act, which revoked permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with Russia as means to condemn the ongoing war in Ukraine. The bill text includes steps considering Russia's participation in the World Trade Organization (WTO).
CF argues the US' steps to suspend normal trade with Russia does not shield it from protection outlined in the current text of the Tariff Act of 1930 and enables Commerce to levy countervailing duties on UAN imports.
"The systematic revocation of trading privileges for Russian goods demonstrates that the United States is no longer applying the WTO Agreement with respect to Russia — and therefore, under the CVD law, Russia is no longer entitled to the benefit of an "injury" test as a prerequisite for the issuance of a CVD order," the letter said. "Rather, the Department's affirmative CVD determination with respect to UAN from Russia alone necessitates the issuance of a CVD order."
Commerce in late June finalized ad-valorem countervailing duties (CVD) and anti-dumping duty rates on UAN imports from Russia. Russian producer Acron faced a 9.66pc CVD rate, while fellow producer Eurochem faced a 6.27pc CVD penalty.
The final anti-dumping rate issued to Acron fell by 0.99 percentage points from the preliminary figures issued in January, while Eurochem's final CVD rate was reduced by 3.57 points from the preliminary ruling in November.
