Global law firm Hogan Lovells today secured a victory for Brazilian steel manufacturer Companhia Siderurgica Nacional S.A. (CSN) at the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), which has issued a final negative determination following a five-year “sunset” review of antidumping and countervailing (AD/CVD) duties on hot-rolled steel (HRS) flat products imported from Brazil and other countries. The ITC, which held its final hearing on 15 September 2022, determined that revoking the existing AD/CVD orders on imports of HRS products from Brazil would not be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury within a reasonably foreseeable time. Concurrently, the ITC made affirmative determinations in its sunset reviews concerning duties on CRS products from Australia, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, thereby maintaining existing AD/CVD duties on those products. The ITC’s ruling can be found here.

The ITC’s negative determination is the third win in as many months by Hogan Lovells’ Washington, D.C.-based International Trade & Investment team, following a 20 July negative determination at the ITC concerning cold-rolled steel imports from Brazil and an 18 July decision to remove tariffs on urea ammonium nitrate (UAN), a fertilizer imported from Russia and Trinidad and Tobago.

Lead counsel, Craig Lewis, who represented CSN since the ITC’s original AD/CVD investigations, said: “We appreciate that the Commission came to the right conclusion in this matter, determining Brazilian hot-rolled steel products are unlikely to injure the U.S. domestic steel industry, after conducting a detailed and thorough review. We are pleased to have secured this win on our clients’ behalf.”

Jacobson, who delivered closing arguments before the ITC, added: “We applaud the ITC’s decision, which reflects the market reality that tiny imports from Brazil cannot materially injure the massively successful American steel industry.”

In addition to Lewis and Jacobson, the Hogan Lovells team included International Trade & Investment partner Jonathan Stoel, International Arbitration & Trade advisor Maria Arboleda, and legal assistant Emma Donahue.

Further details on the legal team’s cold-rolled steel victory can be found here.

Further details on the legal team’s UAN products victory can be found here.