The United States Department of Commerce linked Mexico‘s Rule Eight with improper subsidies in a steel trade case.

Initially, on January 27, 2021, the United States Department of Commerce announced an affirmative preliminary determination in the anti-dumping investigation of imports of standard steel welded metal mesh from Mexico.

The petitioners are Insteel Industries Inc. (Mount Airy, NC), Mid-South Wire Company (Nashville, TN), National Wire LLC (Conroe, TX), Oklahoma Steel & Wire Co. (Madill, OK), and Wire Mesh Corp. (Houston, TX).

Then, on February 18, 2021, the Department of Commerce published a notice in the Federal Register of its final determination of subsidies subject to countervailing measures for producers and exporters of standard metal mesh in Mexico.

The table below presents the Commerce Department’s findings on the subsidy for standard wire mesh in Mexico.

In short, the Commerce Department discovered that one program was available in countervailing measures: the Eighth Rule Permit Program.

Department of Commerce

Deacero did not respond to the Commerce Department’s countervailing duty questionnaire.

Therefore, using adverse inferences for its final determination, the Commerce Department also compared 15 programs (some with subprograms) with the same or similar programs from other compensatory procedures in Mexico.

Based on the record developed in the investigation in question, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) determined, pursuant to the Tariffs Act of 1930, that an industry in the United States suffers pecuniary damage by reason of imports of standard steel welded wire mesh from Mexico, provided for in subheadings 7314.20.00 and 7314.39.00 of the United States Harmonized Tariff, which the United States Department of Commerce determined to be subsidized by the government of Mexico .

In 2019, US imports of this product from Mexico were for 37,826 tons worth 46.7 million dollars.