US market opening up to overseas enrichers

摘要

On 29 November 2007, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled that revocation of the duties previously imposed on enrichment from France would be harmful to US interests and so the current duties will stay in place. Previously the US Court of International Trade (CIT) and the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit had ruled that uranium enrichment itself is a service and not a product, meaning that it is not covered by trade restrictions. This had obvious bearings on both the antidumping action taken by the US Department of Commerce (DoC) against the European enrichment companies Urenco and Areva, but also so-called Suspension Agreement, which effectively barred Russia from direct sales of uranium products in the USA, save for a portion of the feed component from the Russian 'Megatons to Megawatts' programme.