In a surprise September 10, 2019 preliminary decision, the U.S.
Department of Commerce (DOC) established that it will instruct the
U.S. Customs and Border Protection to require cash deposits on
certain types of structural steel imports from Mexico due to its
finding that the so-called Mexican “Eighth Rule”
provides a financial contribution and a benefit to a specific group
of industries, thus constituting a countervailing
subsidy.
As announced, the DOC´s findings are applicable to the
program itself and not exclusively to the relevant steel
products. Therefore, this finding could be extended to other
Mexican exports through separate subsidy investigations, which
would subject any product that benefits from this program to
countervailing duties. This could also increase the
calculated countervailing duty rate for any products that benefit
from this program that are covered by existing countervailing duty
orders (i.e., through the annual administrative review
