Feb 03, 2023.
On January 31, the Malaysian Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) announced the launch of an antidumping (AD) investigation into cold-rolled steel sheets exported from Japan (see the January 31 Official Gazette, opens in a new window). a local company, exported the product to Malaysia at a lower price than the domestic price in Japan, resulting in serious damage to the product, according to the MITI.
Cold-rolled sheets of alloy and non-alloy steel (less than 1,300 mm wide) are the subject of the complaint, and the 23 tariff classifications that may be applicable are listed on page 8 of the above-mentioned Official Gazette. According to the Japan Iron and Steel Federation, supplied sheet widths are generally determined by orders based on the widths that can be accommodated by the rolling mills of primary processors. Therefore, it is necessary to confirm the analysis of individual companies in order to ascertain the extent to which the cold-rolled steel sheets supplied from Japan to Malaysia include the products covered by this survey.
The Malaysian government will send questionnaires to the parties concerned (Malaysian industry and manufacturers' associations, Japanese producers or exporters of the subject products, Malaysian importers and importers' associations, and the Japanese government) and collect their responses and evidence in order to investigate the existence of dumping and its causal link to damages. If you wish to have your views and evidence considered in the investigation, you must request a questionnaire from MITI by February 15 and submit it in writing to the Ministry within 30 days of the date of publication in the Official Gazette. Following the investigation, MITI will issue a provisional decision within 120 days from the date of publication in the Official Gazette. If the damage caused by dumping is found, MITI may introduce provisional measures after 60 days from the date of the commencement of the investigation. Furthermore, a final decision will be made within 120 days from the date of publication of the provisional decision in the official gazette.
On the same day, MITI announced the launch of a sunset review to examine whether or not to continue the taxation of cold-rolled stainless steel sheets exported from China, Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand, which are already subject to AD tax. The target is cold-rolled stainless steel sheets of 0.3 to 6.5 mm thick and 1,600 mm or less in width, including coils and sheets. Malaysia currently imposes an AD tax of up to 111.16% on the subject products from the above four countries/regions, which expires on February 7.
According to the WTO's Trade Remedies portal external site, which opens in a new window, Malaysia has conducted 109 AD investigations so far; of the 35 investigations that led to the application of measures after January 2020, 23, or more than 60%, were on steel products. Malaysia is also imposing AD tax on Japanese-made wide cold-rolled coils from December 2019 onward.