The U.S. Department of Commerce has extended the Antidumping Duty Suspension Agreement on Certain Oil Country Tubular Goods for Ukraine signed in July 2014. The agreement was signed with Interpipe and relates to other Ukrainian companies. The antidumping investigation was suspended in exchange of price commitments of Ukrainian companies.

"Yesterday @CommerceGov decided to extend the Antidumping Duty Suspension Agreement on Certain Oil Country Tubular Goods for Ukraine," Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Ukraine's Trade Representative Natalia Mykolska said on Twitter on Wednesday.

She said on her Facebook page that the U.S. Department of Commerce on July 11, 2017 decided to extend this agreement.

"Thus, Ukrainian tube producers would be able to continue supplies of their goods without paying antidumping duties. Another victory thanks to joint work of Ukrainian manufacturer Interpipe and the governmental team for international trade: Volodymyr Groysman, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, Stepan Kubiv, Embassy of Ukraine in the United States," she said.

Mykolska said that the agreement was signed on July 10, 2014 for the period of three years. It expired on July 10, 2017.

Interpipe said in a press release that the United States extended the Antidumping Duty Suspension Agreement on Certain Oil Country Tubular Goods for Ukraine. According to the decision of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Suspension Agreement will be valid until July 10, 2018.

"We thank the President and the Government of Ukraine for the support of Ukrainian producers at the international level. This is an example of effective cooperation between business and government to protect Ukraine's trade interests in foreign markets. We are also grateful to the U.S. authorities for the step towards Ukraine. This is a positive signal about the support of our country," Interpipe CEO Fadi Hraibi said.

Under the Suspension Agreement, Ukrainian companies will continue selling oil and gas pipes at fair market prices; the minimum prices for such products are approved by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Thus, the Suspension Agreement allows avoiding price dumping and suspends the duty for Ukraine in the amount of 7.47% introduced following the results of the antidumping investigation against a number of importing countries of steel pipes, including Ukraine.

For the first time the Suspension Agreement suspending the antidumping duty was signed in September 2014, when Ukraine was in extremely difficult economic conditions.

An antidumping investigation against Ukrainian pipe makers, which resulted in the introduction of a 7.47% duty, was initiated by a group of American manufacturers. At the same time, Ukrainian imports never represented a threat to the U.S. market. As an example, in 2016 the share of Ukrainian oil & gas tubular goods in the U.S. market was about 1%.