US slaps steep duties on Canadian, Chinese machine parts

The US Commerce Department Monday said it would begin imposing steep tariffs on certain Chinese and Canadian mechanical parts dumped on the US market at below cost.

The department said that iron transfer drive components -- machinery parts like pulleys, sheaves and flywheels -- from Canadian and Chinese companies were sold on the US market at a fraction of the real price.

One Canadian Company, Baldor Electric, failed to answer Commerce Department requests for information and department investigators assessed dumping margins of 191.7 percent on the company's products. For other Canadian producers, a blanket tariff of 100.5 percent was assessed.

For Chinese imports, dumping margins of 13.6-401.7 percent were assessed on all suppliers. The Commerce Department also said that certain products had benefited from unfair subsidies, and assigned a countervailing tariffs of 33.3-163.5 percent.

In 2014, imports of the mechanical parts in the case from Canada and China had been valued at $222.3 million and $274.3 million, respectively.

The US International Trade Commission is to make a final ruling on the tariffs in December. If the commission overrules the Commerce Department decision, duties collected will be refunded.