South Africa imposes provisional safeguard duties on imported corrosion-resistant steel coils, Vietnam is excluded from the measure

The Trade Remedies Authority (TDA) - Ministry of Industry and Trade received information from the Vietnamese Delegation in Geneva that the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC) has issued a notice to apply temporary safeguard measures on corrosion resistant steel coils imported into the Southern African Customs Union (SACU). Vietnam is excluded from the measure because it is a developing country with an import market share of less than 3% and total imports from similar countries not greater than 9%.

Specific information about the incident is as follows:

Products under investigation: Corrosion resistant steel coil classified under the import commodity codes of the Republic of South Africa 7210.61.20, 7210.61.30, 7225.92.25 and 7225.92.35;

Investigation initiation date: January 17, 2025 (the case was previously initiated on December 27, 2024, but was subsequently terminated and re-initiated on the same day);

Investigation period: from May 2021 to April 2024;

Preliminary Conclusion: In its Preliminary Conclusion, ITAC found that imports had a sharp, sudden, clear and recent increase during the investigation period, with an increase of 17.16% from 2022 to 2023. Imports mainly came from China.

ITAC also preliminarily concluded that the SACU manufacturing industry suffered serious injury during the investigation period. Indicators such as output, domestic sales, profits, market share, capacity utilisation and employment all declined significantly during the investigation period. Although there were other factors contributing to the injury, such as reduced demand for steel, reduced infrastructure investment, increased input costs, constraints in logistics and energy supply, etc., these were not the direct causes of injury to the domestic manufacturing industry.

Unforeseen developments: ITAC believes that the following factors have led to the sudden increase in imports into the Republic of South Africa: (i) Overcapacity and economic slowdown in China since 2021 have led to increased exports into the Republic of South Africa; (ii) Tariffs imposed by countries to protect their domestic steel industry have resulted in Chinese steel exports being diverted to countries with lower tariffs.

Temporary safeguard tax rates and application period:

Based on the above content, ITAC proposed to apply a temporary safeguard tax rate of 52.34% for 200 days until the final conclusion of the case.

Exclusions from safeguard measures:

According to WTO regulations, developing countries with an import market share of less than 3% and total imports of these countries not greater than 9% can be excluded from safeguard measures. Vietnam is on the list of countries excluded because it satisfies the criteria of having an import volume of less than 3% to the Republic of South Africa.

Previously, the Trade Remedies Authority of the Ministry of Industry and Trade sent a letter to ITAC to express some opinions on the above case and propose to exclude Vietnam from the safeguard measures. On April 11, 2025, ITAC responded to Vietnam, pledging to carefully consider Vietnam's viewpoint in the process of issuing the Preliminary Conclusion.

Thus, the above preliminary results contribute to supporting Vietnamese enterprises to continue exporting anti-corrosion steel products to the SACU bloc in the coming time. Enterprises and associations need to continue to monitor the developments of the case until the final conclusion is reached.

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For more information, please contact: Foreign Trade Remedies Handling Department, Trade Remedies Authority, Ministry of Industry and Trade, 54 Hai Ba Trung, Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi . Specialist in charge: Bui Anh Dung. E-mail: dungban@moit.gov.vn; nganha@moit.gov.vn

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Source: Department of Trade Defense

Source: https://moit.gov.vn/tin-tuc/thong-bao/cong-hoa-nam-phi-ap-thue-tu-ve-tam-thoi-doi-voi-thep-cuon-chong-an-mon-nhap-khau-viet-nam-duoc-loai-tru-khoi-bien-phap.html