WASHINGTON, Oct 26 (Reuters) - A U.S. trade panel on Tuesday gave final approval to duties on hundreds of millions of dollars of copper pipe and tube from China in one of several disputes causing friction between the two countries.
Four members of the U.S. International Trade Commission voted that imports from both China and Mexico threatened to materially injure domestic producers, while a fifth commissioner said U.S. industry had already been hurt.
The vote clears the way for the Commerce Department to issue anti-dumping orders imposing duties of 11.25 percent to 60.85 percent on Chinese producers and exporters and from 24.89 to 31.43 percent on Mexican suppliers.
U.S. imports of the copper pipe and tube totaled $233 million from China and $130 million from Mexico in 2009.
The ruling is a victory for U.S. producers Cerro Flow Products Inc, Kobe Wieland Copper Products LLC, Mueller Copper Tube Products Inc, and Mueller Copper Tube Company Inc, which filed a petition one year ago asking for protection against lower-priced imports from the two countries.
Preliminaries duties covering imports from both China and Mexico have been in force since May.
(Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Sandra Maler)