Two Changes Considered to AD/CV Regulations

The International Trade Administration is accepting comments through July 7 on two potential changes to its trade remedy regulations.

Unaffiliated resellers. If the ITA conducts an administrative review of a producer and the rate determined for that producer is higher than the “all others” rate, the ITA is requesting comment on whether the “all others” rate should continue to be applied to the merchandise produced by the producer and exported by an unexamined unaffiliated reseller to the U.S. or whether the higher rate calculated for the producer should instead be applied to the unaffiliated reseller. In other words, should the ITA implement a policy in which it applies the higher of either the examined producer’s rate or the “all others” rate? The ITA states that doing so could incentivize unaffiliated resellers to request an administrative review of their own merchandise rather than presume that it would always benefit from a potentially low “all others” rate, which the ITA indicated amounts to such entities “gaming” the trade remedy laws.

Expedited CV reviews. Current regulations provide for an expedited review immediately following a CV duty investigation if, in that investigation, the ITA limited the number of exporters or producers to be individually examined and did not accept voluntary respondents. However, over the past 25+ years the ITA has conducted only a limited number of such expedited reviews, which “require an inordinate amount of agency time and resources” that could be further exacerbated by the “historically large number of AD and CV proceedings” the ITA is currently conducting. The ITA is therefore considering removing, retaining, or modifying the associated regulation, noting that “other avenues already exist to provide exporters and producers alternative opportunities to request an individual-company subsidy rate, such as participating as a voluntary respondent in investigations, requesting a ‘new shipper review,’ requesting an administrative review, or participating as a voluntary respondent in administrative reviews.”