Two senators have introduced legislation to combat evasion of existing federal anti–dumping and countervailing duty orders by importers and their foreign suppliers.
Ron Wyden (D–Ore.) and Olympia Snowe (R–Maine) introduced the Enforcing Orders and Reducing Circumvention and Evasion Act on Aug. 5 to give the U.S. Commerce Department and U.S. Customs and Border Protection new tools to quash attempts to evade special duties imposed after formal determinations of unfair trade practices.
Existing laws allow U.S. manufacturers to ask the Commerce Department and the U.S. International Trade Commission to investigate imports that are unfairly priced or subsidized, injuring U.S. industries.
If the government finds that imports are dumped or subsidized and cause harm to U.S. industries, the Commerce Department issues a formal order that requires Customs and Border Protection to collect special duties to negate the unfair prices or subsidies.
However, some importers and foreign suppliers attempt to evade these duties by shipping products to the United States via third countries, repackaging products in a third country, falsely identifying the country of origin or falsifying documents.
Key provisions of the bill include:
- Increasing the Commerce Department’s ability to investigate duty evasion
- Establishing a rapid-response timeline for the Commerce Department and Customs and Border Protection to respond to allegations of evasion.
- Improving the safety of imports.
