United States To Explore New Rules For Enforcement Of Anti-Dumping, Countervailing Duty Laws

As FastmarketsAMM (subscription required) recently reported, the U.S. Department of Commerce has proposed new rules to clarify and streamline the administration and enforcement of anti-dumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) laws. The department said the new rules will “create new enforcement tools … to address circumvention and evasion of trade remedies.”

The proposed modifications include provisions to:

• Set specific timelines and procedures for imposing duties when circumvention is found, and explicit authorization for Commerce to self-initiate.
• Allow the Commerce Department to assist U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in combating duty evasion.
• Establish a procedure for the department to address CBP’s questions about potential evasion.
• Prevent foreign companies from abusing new shipper reviews by providing that if the foreign company requesting a review fails to provide evidence of bona fide sales, then the Commerce Department can decline to initiate the review – instead of waiting until the review is already underway to obtain such evidence, as is currently the practice.
• Streamline existing procedures and expedite deadlines and deter abuse of scope procedures by ensuring that AD/CVD duties apply to products determined to be subject to AD/CVD orders, regardless of when a scope ruling was requested.
• Make changes in how the Commerce Department conducts the scope of its proceedings and how it deals with circumvention of its anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders.
• Revise rules covering how Commerce will conduct reviews of potential new shippers that might be subject to duties, in addition to providing procedural changes for filing requirements and the timing of filing deadlines.