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Countervailing duties (CVDs), also known as anti-subsidy duties, are trade import duties imposed under World Trade Organization (WTO). [1] They are applied following an investigation that determines a foreign country's subsidies on exports have harmed domestic producers in the importing country. These duties aim to counterbalance the adverse impacts of such subsidies. [2] [1]
According to World Trade Organization rules, a country can launch its own investigation and decide to charge extra duties, provided such additional duties are in accordance with the GATT Article VI and the GATT Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.
Since countries can rule domestically whether domestic industries are in danger and whether foreign countries subsidize the products, the institutional process surrounding the investigation and determinations has significant impacts beyond the countervailing duties.
Countervailing duties in the U.S. are assessed by the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce which determines whether imports in question are being subsidized and, if so, by how much. If the U.S. International Trade Commission determines that there is material injury to the competing domestic industry, the Department of Commerce will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to levy duties in the amount equivalent to subsidy margins. [3]
Petitions for remedies may be filed by domestic manufacturers or unions within the domestic industry, but the law requires that the petitioners represent at least 25% of the domestic production of the goods for which competition is causing material injury.
A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and policy that taxes foreign products to encourage or safeguard domestic industry. Protective tariffs are among the most widely used instruments of protectionism, along with import quotas and export quotas and other non-tariff barriers to trade.
Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC) was a type of tax device allowed under the United States Internal Revenue Code that allowed companies to receive a reduction in U.S. federal income tax for profits derived from exports.
The International Trade Administration (ITA) is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that promotes United States exports of nonagricultural U.S. goods and services.
Dumping, in economics, is a form of predatory pricing, especially in the context of international trade. It occurs when manufacturers export a product to another country at a price below the normal price with an injuring effect. The objective of dumping is to increase market share in a foreign market by driving out competition and thereby create a monopoly situation where the exporter will be able to unilaterally dictate price and quality of the product. Trade treaties might include mechanisms to alleviate problems related to dumping, such as countervailing duty penalties and anti-dumping statutes.
The Canada–U.S. softwood lumber dispute is one of the largest and most enduring trade disputes between both nations. This conflict arose in 1982 and its effects are still seen today. British Columbia, the major Canadian exporter of softwood lumber to the United States, was most affected, reporting losses of 9,494 direct and indirect jobs between 2004 and 2009.
Non-tariff barriers to trade are trade barriers that restrict imports or exports of goods or services through mechanisms other than the simple imposition of tariffs. Such barriers are subject to controversy and debate, as they may comply with international rules on trade yet serve protectionist purposes.
The Australia – United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) is a preferential trade agreement between Australia and the United States modelled on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The AUSFTA was signed on 18 May 2004 and came into effect on 1 January 2005.
The Canadian International Trade Tribunal (CITT) is an independent quasi-judicial body operating in Canada's trade system. The administrative tribunal reports to Parliament through the Minister of Finance. The Tribunal was established on December 31, 1988, and is based in Ottawa, Ontario. The Tribunal is composed of a chairperson and up to six permanent members appointed by the Governor-in-council. Temporary members may also be appointed.
In international trade law, a safeguard is a restraint to protect home or national industries from foreign competition. In the World Trade Organization (WTO), a member may take a safeguard action, such as restricting imports of a product temporarily to protect a domestic industry from an increase in imports causing or threatening to cause injury to domestic production.
In international trade, market access refers to a company's ability to enter a foreign market by selling its goods and services in another country. Market access is not the same as free trade, because market access is normally subject to conditions or requirements, whereas under ideal free trade conditions goods and services can circulate across borders without any barriers to trade. Expanding market access is therefore often a more achievable goal of trade negotiations than achieving free trade.
The Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) is an international treaty of the World Trade Organization. It was negotiated during the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and entered into force with the establishment of the WTO on 1 January 1995.
The Trade Act of 1974 was passed to give the President more power in matters of trade agreements and tariffs.
Rules of origin are the rules to attribute a country of origin to a product in order to determine its "economic nationality". The need to establish rules of origin stems from the fact that the implementation of trade policy measures, such as tariffs, quotas, trade remedies, in various cases, depends on the country of origin of the product at hand.
The House Way and Means Subcommittee on Trade is one of the six subcommittees within the House Ways and Means Committee
The domestic international sales corporation is a concept unique to tax law in the United States. In 1971, the U.S. Congress voted to use U.S. tax law to subsidize exports of U.S.-made goods. The initial mechanism was through a Domestic International Sales Corporation (DISC), an entity with no substance which received tax benefits. Today, shareholders of a DISC continue to receive reduced income tax rates on qualifying income from exports of U.S.-made goods.
Since 1970s, there has been on going trade disputes between Mexico against the United States. The complaints were taken to General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) committee and its 1995 successor; the World Trade Organization (WTO). The case became known as Tuna-Dolphin I, Tuna-Dolphin II and US-Tuna II (Mexico). Complaints concerned the USA embargo on yellowfin tuna and yellowfin tuna product imports that used purse-seine fishing methods and the labeling there of. Purse-seine fishing has resulted in a high number of dolphin kills.
Stewart and Stewart is a former international law firm based in Washington D.C., recognized for representing mainly U.S. clients in International Trade law actions. The firm had 17 attorneys and represented notable clients in a wide range of industries and agriculture. The firm's practice focused on trade remedies such as antidumping and countervailing duties as well as customs issues, WTO negotiations and disputes, export and import compliance programs, China economic and trade relations, regional trade agreements, and government relations. They are considered one of the nation's leading law firms on securing antidumping and countervailing duties in international trade. The firm's managing partner was widely published trade expert Terence Stewart, son of firm founder Eugene Stewart. In 2019 Stewart retired; the remaining partners merged with Schagrin Associates.
Terence P. Stewart is an American lawyer and managing partner of the law firm Stewart and Stewart. He has authored books on international trade law and testified numerous times before Congressional Committees on trade matters. He is notable for his focus on trade remedy law and has published extensively on law review in publications including the Georgetown Journal of International Law and The Washington Times.
On August 29, 2013, an antidumping case involving South Korea began at the World Trade Organization over U.S. tariffs imposed on imported washing machines. South Korea exports around US$800 million–1 billion worth of washing machines to the United States per year. The machines are made in Mexico and South Korea. South Korea was notified by the WTO for consultations with the United States on anti-dumping and countervailing measures on South Korean "residential washers" by the US Department of Commerce. The case was brought by Whirlpool Corporation, one of the world's biggest appliance makers.
On 28 April 2016, Bombardier Aerospace, a division of Bombardier Inc., recorded a firm order from Delta Air Lines for 75 CSeries CS100s plus 50 options. On 27 April 2017, The Boeing Company filed a petition for dumping them at $19.6m each, below their $33.2m production cost. On the same day, both Bombardier and the government of Canada rejected Boeing's claim, vowing to mount a "vigorous defence".