With help from Doug Palmer, Adam Behsudi and Jenny Hopkinson

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ALUMINUM EXEC EXPECTS JCCT CONVERSATION ON CHINA CRISIS: A U.S. aluminum industry executive said he expects Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker to tell her counterparts at the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade taking place in Guangzhou this weekend that a flood of highly subsidized imports from China is threatening to put them out of business. It’s one of several tactics the industry is planning to employ under its newly formed “China Trade Task Force.”

Speaking at a briefing held Thursday by the task force, Century Aluminum CEO Michael Bless said he did not rule out filing petitions for countervailing duties or even pressing for a case at the World Trade Organization, but he added that no decisions have been made. He said China’s subsidization of its industry has caused more than 3 million tons of overcapacity on the world market.

“The best way to approach this is to work with the administration to pursue under the law the right remedy here,” Bless told Pro Trade. “So where this will go on what kind of path I’d rather not predict at this point in time, we’re not sure at this point in time what the right way for this to go is.”…