US Commerce tightens trade law one notch

The US Department of Commerce (DOC) has suspended the right of importers of merchandise subject to a “new shipper review” to post a bond instead of making a cash deposit for applicable antidumping (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD). This suspension will apply retroactively from April 1, 2006 to June 30, 2009. It seems that some shady importers were asking for “new shipper reviews” and posting bonds for merchandise subject to AD and CVD duties. By the time the reviews were completed and dumping and countervailing penalties had to be paid, these import companies had either vanished or gone into bankruptcy. Apparently, there were numerous cases of this abuse and in almost all cases, the merchandise in question came from China, however, reportedly, steel items from China were not involved in these scams. While trying to avoid such abuses, the DOC made reviews for legitimate new shippers extremely difficult. There are many pending antidumping cases and any new shippers are categorized under the “All Others” rate, which is usually extremely high. For example, if you are a newly built wire rod mill in Brazil, you will have to pay close to 80 percent AD and CVD rates upfront if you want to ship anything to the US. Your mill could have been built even after the antidumping investigation first initiated, but you are still considered dumping and have to pay these high rates until you go through the “New Shipper Review” and prove to DOC that you are not dumping your products. This review takes about two years to complete, and during this time the AD and CVD duties you paid will be kept at the customs. This suspension of the bonding privileges in “new shipper” reviews does not apply to merchandise from Canada and Mexico.