The US Court of International Trade (CIT) has ruled in favour of South Korean steel giant POSCO in a suit against the United States’ imposition of countervailing duties on the company, Seoul’s industry ministry said today.
In December 2023, the US Department of Commerce had imposed a 0.87 percent countervailing tariff on POSCO’s carbon and alloy steel plates, claiming the Korean company was selling its products at unfairly low prices in the US market.
The CIT has refuted Washington’s argument, saying heavy electricity usage of a company does not mean it received a disproportionate amount of subsidy and the US Department unreasonably grouped steel with two other unrelated industries.
The ministry said the CIT also accepted the Korean side’s argument that extra permits within the carbon emissions trading system do not constitute a forfeiture of government revenue, and the Korean government did not allocate additional permits to any specific enterprise or industry.
