CBP is inviting you to report antidumping evasion

Do you hate, just hate paying antidumping duties knowing that your competitors don’t? Or, even if you don’t pay antidumping duties, does it bother you that some companies evade laws designed to protect our domestic industries from what our country considers foreign economic predation?

Now you can do something about it. On August 22, 2016, U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued interim regulations that force it to formally investigate claims of evasion of antidumping or countervailing duty order. The public has forty-five days to submit comments. The new rules aren’t called whistleblowing, but that’s what they are. If you are an interested party, you will be able snitch on someone who you think is evading antidumping duties and CBP is required to keep you in the loop as it investigates. CBP is authorized to extend its investigative tendrils out to foreign parties and will draw negative inferences if those parties aren’t cooperative. If CBP uncovers evasion, among other things, it will suspend liquidation and likely penalize the importer and other parties involved in the evasion. Only “interested parties” will be able to report evasion, but include a wide range of entities. Importers and foreign producers of covered merchandise qualify, but so do domestic manufacturers, producers, wholesalers, labor unions, and trade or business associations if these entities are directly associated with a domestic like product. Other government agencies can also report evasion. 
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You won’t be able to report evasion anonymously and you don’t share in any antidumping duties collected, although you may ask that your business information be kept confidential. CBP is required to assist small businesses in preparing and filing evasion reports. 

Our September 21st webinar on Antidumping Duties will cover this topic in more detail.

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