Turkey 'considering WTO appeal over US steel pipe duties'

Turkey is considering lodging an appeal with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against a U.S. move to slap anti-dumping duties on imports of Turkish steel pipes, an industry group told Reuters.

?We firmly believe that the Turkish Ministry of Economy will take the ... case to the WTO,? Nam?k Ekinci, the president of the Turkish Steel Exporters? Association (CIB), told Reuters.

?The ministry must consider several factors before making a final decision, but there is a strong indication and we expect the decision to be taken at the earliest.?

Turkey?s Economy Ministry declined to comment. A spokesman for the U.S. Trade Representative said the agency does not comment on potential WTO litigation as a matter of policy.

In a big win for U.S. steel pipe makers, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled last year that imports of ?oil country tubular goods? (OCTG) from South Korea, India, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam would be subject to duties of up to 118 percent.

But foreign producers appealed, winning a small victory earlier this month when the U.S. Court of International Trade (USCIT) called for a recalculation of the sums used to determine duties on imports from South Korea.

U.S. OCTG imports from the Asian nation totaled $818 million in 2013, more than the combined totals of the other countries. South Korea lodged a WTO appeal against the duties last December.

Kimberly Leppold, senior analyst at Metal Bulletin Research, said Turkey had a strong case to take to the WTO.

The CIB said Turkey?s OCTG exports to the United States in 2014 accounted for just 1.7 percent of total arrivals. It declined to say how much they were worth but an industry source said the dollar value of the trade was ...