Dive Brief:
- The United States International Trade Commission has determined there is harm to U.S. industry from imports of disposable aluminum containers, pans, trays and lids from China, saying in an April 11 announcement that these items are sold in the U.S. at less than fair value and subsidized by China’s government.
- The Aluminum Foil Container Manufacturers Association applauds USITC’s decision. The association and member companies including Durable Packaging International, Handi-foil Corp. and Reynolds Consumer Products filed a complaint in May 2024 that drove the federal government to launch its investigation.
- Next, the U.S. Department of Commerce will issue antidumping duty orders and countervailing duty orders on imports of these products from China.
Dive Insight:
The federal government receives antidumping and countervailing duty petitions on an ongoing basis and launches probes accordingly. These trade investigations and duties are separate from the other tariffs the Trump administration has announced recently, such as country-specific reciprocal tariffs, and the new duties will be added onto any others. USITC plans to publicly post its full report about the aluminum container determination by May 26.
“The International Trade Commission’s determination will provide much-needed relief to domestic producers of disposable aluminum containers that were losing sales and being forced to lower their prices to compete with extremely low-priced imports from China,” John Herrmann, counsel to AFCMA, said in a news release.
After this initial case is official and documented, AFCMA’s attorneys will file a new complaint to prompt USITC to investigate Chinese companies circumventing U.S. duties by transshipping their aluminum foil containers through other countries in southeast Asia, an AFCMA spokesperson said via email.
Thailand and Vietnam especially are under the microscope for this transshipping, with import data from the last few months showing a “significant increase” in aluminum foil container imports from those two countries, the spokesperson said. U.S. distributors also have reported that they're importing these products from alternative countries to avoid duties, the spokesperson said.
The Aluminum Association also has spoken out against other metal tariff circumvention via transshipping. For instance, the association has denounced certain Mexican brewers’ and can makers’ use of Chinese aluminum sheet for cans that contain beer, which the U.S. then imports. It says recent Trump administration tariffs on aluminum cans and beer imports address that issue.
The group was not directly involved in the countervailing and antidumping case for aluminum containers. However, “we appreciate the government’s finding that imports of certain aluminum containers and trays harm the domestic industry,” said President and CEO Charles Johnson in an email. “As our industry and several third parties have long documented, the government of China continues to provide massive subsidies to its aluminum sector which distorts global markets and encourages unfair trade.”
