The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) made a unanimous preliminary determination today that unfairly-traded imports of certain aluminum foil from Armenia, Brazil, Oman, Russia, and Turkey are causing injury to U.S. producers.  As a result of the USITC’s affirmative preliminary determination, the U.S. Department of Commerce will continue to conduct antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on imports of certain aluminum foil from the five countries.  The Commerce Department’s preliminary countervailing duty determinations concerning imports from Oman and Turkey are currently due to be completed on December 23, 2020, and Commerce’s preliminary antidumping duty determinations concerning imports from all five countries are currently due to be completed on March 8, 2021.  

“The Aluminum Association and its members are encouraged by today’s unanimous preliminary finding,” said Tom Dobbins, President & CEO of the Aluminum Association.  “After successfully petitioning for unfair trade orders on imported aluminum foil from China in 2018, U.S. foil producers were unfortunately confronted by a second surge of unfairly-traded imports from these countries. Today’s decision is the first step in restoring fair conditions to the U.S. foil market.”  

“Today’s affirmative preliminary decision by the ITC is an important first step in remedying the devastating injury that the flood of unfairly-traded imports of certain aluminum foil from the subject countries have had on domestic producers,” commented John Herrmann, of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, counsel to the domestic industry.  

Imports of certain aluminum foil from the five subject countries increased by nearly 110 percent between 2017 and 2019 and accounted for 43.7 percent of total U.S. imports in 2019.  The total value of certain aluminum foil imports from the five subject countries in 2019 was $281.4 million.

The certain aluminum foil that is subject to investigation includes all imports from Armenia, Brazil, Oman, Russia, and Turkey of aluminum foil that is 0.2 mm or less in thickness (less than 0.0079 inches) in reels weighing more than 25 pounds and that is not backed.  The determination does not cover etched capacitor foil or foil that has been cut to shape.  Certain aluminum foil is used extensively in food and pharmaceutical packaging, household foil, thermal insulation, cables, electronics, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (“HVAC”) applications and other heat transfer products where properties such as light weight, resistance to corrosion, and formability are desired.  

The Aluminum Association Trade Enforcement Working Group and its individual members are represented in these actions by John Herrmann, Paul Rosenthal, Alan Luberda, and Joshua Morey of the law firm Kelley Drye & Warren LLP.