Hello and welcome to another edition of the Emlex podcast. I'm Leah Nyland,

Emlex's chief global antitrust correspondent in Washington, D.C. We're here today to talk about

aluminum foil. Yes, that kind of aluminum foil.

The kind you might use on a baking sheet to make cookies or to make little hats to keep

out the aliens.

You might be surprised to discover that aluminum foil has become a significant flashpoint

in U.S.-China trade relations.

Here to talk to us about it is Emlex's US trade correspondent,

Adam Siegel.

Hi, Adam.

Hi, Leah.

So Adam, can you tell us a little bit about how aluminum foil

became important and why do China in the US care so much about it?

So the US and China are fighting over how anti-dumping duties are going to be

calculated on Chinese imports. And the reason aluminum foil got involved is because aluminum foil

was the first case that was filed in the United States after a very important date, and that's

December 16th, 2016.

And that date is the 15th anniversary of China's joining the WTO, the World Trade Organization.

And the reason that that's important is that when China joined, they had an agreement

with all the other members that said, for 15 years,

you can treat us in a certain way

when you're calculating our anti-dumping duties,

...