Antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CVD) law enforcement are among CBP’s priority trade issues. In Fiscal Year 2020, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) prevented importers from evading $287 million in duties owed to the US government through the Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA), which represents a 500% increase since the beginning of EAPA’s implementation in FY 2017. According to an October 21st CBP statement, “The majority of AD/CVD evasion investigated through the EAPA program this year involved Chinese goods transshipped through Cambodia, the Dominican Republic, India, Malaysia, Laos, Taiwan, Turkey, Thailand, or Vietnam. Some of the most common evasion schemes include illegally shipping goods through a third country or attempting to undervalue or misclassify goods upon entrance into the United States.”
The US Department of Commerce assesses antidumping and countervailing duties on certain imported goods which are found to be “dumped” into the United States at less than fair value, or whose sale is assisted or subsidized by a foreign government. CBP is charged with collecting these duties. CBP uses EAPA to combat duty evasion schemes by:
- thoroughly vetting importer’s transaction history over an entire year before determining final payment owed,
- conducting on-site visits at origin countries to investigate potential fraud,
- collaborating with new authorities to ensure cooperation with investigations, and
- holding importers accountable for understanding their sourcing and supply chains.
In the near future, look for a bi-monthly AD/CVD Spotlight Series from Deringer highlighting select AD/CVD cases. For additional information, please reach out to our Compliance Department.
