Japan aired its concerns Thursday to the United States that the recent series of antidumping claims by the U.S. steel industry against steel imports has substantially paralyzed Japanese exports of most major steel products, government officials said.
Hisamitsu Arai, vice minister for international affairs, told David Aaron, U.S. undersecretary of commerce for international trade, during his visit to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry Thursday morning, that the recent "overuse" of antidumping suits by the U.S. steel industry is "abnormal," even though Japanese steel exports to the U.S. have declined to levels logged in 1997 before the Asian economic crisis.
While maintaining that the act of taking antidumping measures itself serves to practically halt exports, Arai also questioned whether the recent move by the U.S. Department of Commerce to shorten its investigation period for dumping claims deprives the accused parties of enough time to defend themselves.