BETHESDA, Md. - The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) issued its final rulings today that two European enrichers are receiving unfair subsidies from their governments on the production of low-enriched uranium (LEU) and, in the case of one enricher, dumping LEU in the United States.

Following a year of investigation, the DOC determined that duties should be imposed on imports of LEU produced by Eurodif, S.A., a French government-controlled entity and Urenco Ltd., a British-Dutch-German consortium. Last December, USEC Inc., the sole domestic enricher, petitioned the DOC and U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to investigate the European enrichers’ pricing.

According to the DOC rulings, combined antidumping and countervailing duties of 32.78 percent will be applied to the value of imported LEU from France, and countervailing duties of 2.26 percent will be applied to the value of imported LEU from Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Using the industry standard unit of measurement, Separative Work Unit (SWU), this translates into estimated duties on the value of Eurodif SWU of 54.63 percent and on the value of Urenco SWU of 3.77 percent.

A January 18 vote by the ITC will determine whether these trade practices have materially injured USEC, or threaten to do so. In a January 2001 preliminary determination, the ITC found that there is a reasonable indication that these imports threaten to materially injure the domestic enrichment industry. If the ITC makes an affirmative final ruling, the DOC will issue final antidumping and countervailing duty orders that will result in the imposition of the duties on European LEU.

If duties were ultimately imposed, this would not prevent the importation of European LEU into the U.S. market. The duties would, however, help to offset the European enrichers’ unfair pricing practices. There will be no import quotas assigned by the U.S. government.

USEC Inc. (NYSE: USU), a global energy company, is the world’s leading supplier of enriched uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power plants.

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