The U.S. steel industry is excessively protected, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on Thursday.
The statement followed a determination by the United States International Trade Commission (USITC), which said on Wednesday that the U.S. steel industry is being "materially injured" by cold-rolled steel flat products from China and Japan. The USITC finding was posted on its website. All six commissioners at the USITC voted in the affirmative.
As a result, the US Commerce Department will issue anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders on imports of these products from China.
The anti-dumping duty rate is 265.79 percent and the countervailing duty rate is 256.44 percent, according to the US Commerce Department's determination in May 2016.
As of the end of April, the US had adopted 161 trade remedy measures affecting imported steel products, an official in charge of the trade remedy investigation was quoted as saying in the statement from the MOFCOM.