Trade Cases
Commerce Proposes Changes to AD/CVD Rules
Written by Sandy Williams
August 13, 2020
The Department of Commerce is proposing modifications to antidumping and countervailing duty regulations to make them more efficient and to create new enforcement tools to address circumvention and evasion.
In a detailed rule published in the Federal Register, Commerce proposes:
- The creation of standalone rules governing Commerce’s conduct of circumvention inquiries. The new rules set out specific timelines, procedures for imposing duties when circumvention is found, and explicit authorization for Commerce to self-initiate.
- The creation of rules for Commerce to assist U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in combating duty evasion. The new rules establish a procedure for Commerce to address CBP’s questions about potential evasion, implementing legislation signed into law in 2016.
- Rules that prevent foreign companies from abusing new shipper reviews. The rules provide that if the foreign company requesting a review fails to provide evidence of bona fide sales, then Commerce can decline to initiate the review – instead of waiting until the review is already underway to obtain such evidence, as is done under Commerce’s current regulations.
- Updated rules on scope inquiries that streamline existing procedures and expedite deadlines. These revisions also 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.
Commerce has initiated 281 new antidumping and countervailing duty investigations under the Trump administration—a 260 percent increase from the previous administration. Currently, 431 AD/CVD orders are maintained on unfairly traded imports.
The specifics of each proposed change can be viewed in the Federal Register. Commerce invites the public to submit comments by Sept. 14 that will be taken into consideration when issuing a final rule.
Sandy Williams
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