NEW YORK — The domestic tube and pipe industry will file trade cases when it is assured of more success, according to one trade lawyer.

"I would say cases will be filed when it is appropriate and when the industry believes it can win the cases by an overwhelming predominance. These cases are time-consuming and expensive, and the worst thing is to lose," Roger Schagrin, an attorney at Washington-based Schagrin Associates, told participants at AMM’s 6th annual Steel Tube and Pipe Conference in Houston.

This follows recent speculation that a trade case against South Korean producers of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) is imminent, after executives at a number of large tube and pipe makers intimated last year that a filing was upcoming (amm.com, Jan. 16).

Schagrin pointed to the industry’s record of vigorously defending itself when it believes it has been injured by unfairly traded imports. "There have been more cases on pipe and tube products than any steel product over the last 25 years," he said.

Schagrin has advocated for a greater focus on declining market share—not just falling profit margins—in determining injury to the domestic market in trade cases.

"We have to make it clear that if you’re losing market share, that’s injury," he said.