US sets preliminary antidumping duties on aluminum foil from four countries

　　As a result, imports of these products from Armenia were assigned a preliminary weighted-average dumping margin of 188.84%, while producers and exporters from Brazil were assigned preliminary dumping margins of 13.87%-63.05%, according to an April 28 decision notice. Imports of aluminum foil from Russia were assigned a preliminary weighted-average dumping margin of 62.18%, while Oman was assigned a preliminary dumping margin of 4.03%.

　　Commerce determined that producers and exporters of aluminum foil from Turkey made no sales during the period of the investigation. As a result, Turkey's preliminary dumping margin was set at zero.

　　"[The] findings confirm that producers in Armenia, Brazil, Oman, and Russia relied on artificially low prices to increase rapidly aluminum foil exports to the United States, as unfairly traded imports from China withdrew from the market in connection with prior trade enforcement actions," Tom Dobbins, CEO of the Aluminum Association, said in a statement. "While we are disappointed in the Commerce Department's preliminary finding on Turkey, we remain hopeful that the agency will reach an affirmative final determination later this year."

　　Commerce is postponing the final determinations and extending the provisional measures from a four-month period to a period not greater than six months in relation to Armenia and Russia, it said. Final determinations in these cases are now due within 135 days.

　　The period of the investigations span July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2020.

　　Commerce set preliminary countervailing duties on imports of aluminum foil from Oman and Turkey in March, finding that producers and exporters from these countries were benefitting from subsidies. Turkey's preliminary subsidy rate was set at 2.79%, while the preliminary subsidy rate for Oman was set at 2.15%.

　　The antidumping and countervailing duty investigations were launched by Commerce in October 2020 following petitions filed by the Aluminum Association Trade Enforcement Working Group and its individual members including Gr?nges Americas, JW Aluminum and Novelis.