Nucor Fastener, through the Law Offices of Wiley Rein LLP, has filed an anti dumping petition with the U.S. International Trade Commission for standard steel fasteners from the People's Republic of China and Taiwan alleging dumping margins from 68.70 to 185.95% for China and from 49.59 to 111.84% for Taiwan. A group of fastener importers has formed a coalition and retained the Law Firm of Barnes, Richardson & Colburn to represent them in responding to the petition. It is the intent of the coalition to present a unified position that refutes claims made in the petition.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency waived of Buy American requirements for fasteners and other small quality imported parts in the $6 billion worth of water projects paid for by federal stimulus funds. The “de minimis” foreign goods cannot make up more than 5% of the total material costs in the project.
A shortage of the U.S. made small parts or difficulty in determining where they
are made was slowed approval of state and municipal drinking water and wastewater treatment and distribution projects that rely on stimulus funds, http://www.WaterWebster.org reports.
“For many of these incidental components, the country of manufacture and the
availability of alternatives is not always readily or reasonably identifiable prior to
procurement in the normal course of business; for other incidental components, the country of manufacture may be known but the miscellaneous character in conjunction with the low cost, individually and (in total) as typically procured in bulk, mark them as properly incidental,” according to the EPA.
The EPA called it “inconsistent with the public interest” to apply the Buy American regulations to fasteners and other low-cost items.
