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Stainless Steel Duties on Chinese-Manufactured Products

In recent years, the United States has made strides to promote the manufacturing of local,United States companies over that of foreign companies and products. With the goal of promoting local factories and manufacturing, the United States has placed additional taxes, tariffs, fees, and regulations on the sale of foreign products in the United States. China is one of the countries that has received the most new laws regarding the sale of products in the United States. In early 2012, an increased tariff was placed on the sale of solar panels in the United States, and in late 2012, the United States has also implemented an anti-dumping law on China regarding the sale of stainless steel sinks and other steel products.

The regulation for the anti-dumping duties that China must pay range anywhere from a 54 percent to 76 percent fee on the item. This is meant to discourage Chinese factories from flooding the market with Chinese-made products, preventing U.S. companies from profiting from the sale of stainless steel products. Such high duty regulations will place a huge damper on the sale of Chinese manufactured steel products in the United States.

Although there are some benefits to the duties added to Chinese-made products, such as the ability for U.S. factories to sell their products and still receive profit from the goods, there are also a few drawbacks associated with the anti-dumping laws.U.S.factories that purchase raw steel goods from China may have trouble finding enough metal to maintain their current production lines if Chinese companies decide to sell elsewhere. The price of Chinese-manufactured steel products will also rise, which may actually force U.S. companies to increase the price of their steel products or to sell their products at a lower profit margin.  The United States votes on the need for duties and other tariffs each year, which means that next year, the extra steel duty may be removed.