II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 61

To amend the Tariff Act of 1930 to eliminate disincentives to fair trade

conditions.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JANUARY 19, 1999

Mr. DEWINE (for himself, Mr. HOLLINGS, Mr. ABRAHAM, Mr. SANTORUM,

Mr. SPECTER, Mr. BYRD, Mr. HUTCHINSON, and Mr. VOINOVICH) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

A BILL

To amend the Tariff Act of 1930 to eliminate disincentives

to fair trade conditions.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Continued Dumping

5 and Subsidy Offset Act of 1999’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS OF CONGRESS.

7 Congress makes the following findings:

8 (1) Consistent with the rights of the United

9 States under the World Trade Organization, injuri-
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1 ous dumping is to be condemned and actionable sub2 sidies which cause injury to domestic industries

3 must be effectively neutralized.

4 (2) United States unfair trade laws have as

5 their purpose the restoration of conditions of fair

6 trade so that jobs and investment that should be in

7 the United States are not lost through the false

8 market signals.

9 (3) The continued dumping or subsidization of

10 imported products after the issuance of antidumping

11 orders or findings or countervailing duty orders can

12 frustrate the remedial purpose of the laws by pre13 venting market prices from returning to fair levels.

14 (4) Where dumping or subsidization continues,

15 domestic producers will be reluctant to reinvest or

16 rehire and may be unable to maintain pension and

17 health care benefits that conditions of fair trade

18 would permit. Similarly, small businesses and Amer19 ican farmers and ranchers may be unable to pay

20 down accumulated debt, to obtain working capital,

21 or to otherwise remain viable.

22 (5) United States trade laws should be

23 strengthened to see that the remedial purpose of

24 those laws is achieved.
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1 SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO THE TARIFF ACT OF 1930.

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title VII of the Tariff Act of

3 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1671 et seq.) is amended by inserting

4 after section 753 following new section:

5 ‘‘SEC. 754. CONTINUED DUMPING AND SUBSIDY OFFSET.

6 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Duties assessed pursuant to a

7 countervailing duty order, an antidumping duty order, or

8 a finding under the Antidumping Act of 1921 shall be dis9 tributed on an annual basis under this section to the af10 fected domestic producers for qualifying expenditures.

11 Such distribution shall be known as the ‘continued dump12 ing and subsidy offset’.

13 ‘‘(b) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section:

14 ‘‘(1) AFFECTED DOMESTIC PRODUCER.—The

15 term ‘affected domestic producer’ means any manu16 facturer, producer, farmer, rancher, or worker rep17 resentative (including associations of such persons)

18 that—

19 ‘‘(A) was a petitioner or interested party in

20 support of the petition with respect to which an

21 antidumping duty order, a finding under the

22 Antidumping Act of 1921, or a countervailing

23 duty order has been entered, and

24 ‘‘(B) remains in operation.

25 Companies, businesses, or persons that have ceased

26 the production of the product covered by the order
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1 or finding or who have been acquired by a company

2 or business that is related to a company that op3 posed the investigation shall not be an affected do4 mestic producer.

5 ‘‘(2) COMMISSIONER.—The term ‘Commis6 sioner’ means the Commissioner of Customs.

7 ‘‘(3) COMMISSION.—The term ‘Commission’

8 means the United States International Trade Com9 mission.

10 ‘‘(4) QUALIFYING EXPENDITURE.—The term

11 ‘qualifying expenditure’ means an expenditure in12 curred after the issuance of the antidumping duty

13 finding or order or countervailing duty order in any

14 of the following categories:

15 ‘‘(A) Plant.

16 ‘‘(B) Equipment.

17 ‘‘(C) Research and development.

18 ‘‘(D) Personnel training.

19 ‘‘(E) Acquisition of technology.

20 ‘‘(F) Health care benefits to employees

21 paid for by the employer.

22 ‘‘(G) Pension benefits to employees paid

23 for by the employer.

24 ‘‘(H) Environmental equipment, training,

25 or technology.
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1 ‘‘(I) Acquisition of raw materials and other

2 inputs.

3 ‘‘(J) Borrowed working capital or other

4 funds needed to maintain production.

5 ‘‘(5) RELATED TO.—A company, business, or

6 person shall be considered to be ‘related to’ another

7 company, business, or person if—

8 ‘‘(A) the company, business, or person di9 rectly or indirectly controls or is controlled by

10 the other company, business, or person,

11 ‘‘(B) a third party directly or indirectly

12 controls both companies, businesses, or persons,

13 ‘‘(C) both companies, businesses, or per14 sons directly or indirectly control a third party

15 and there is reason to believe that the relation16 ship causes the first company, business, or per17 sons to act differently than a nonrelated party.

18 For purposes of this paragraph, a party shall be

19 considered to directly or indirectly control another

20 party if the party is legally or operationally in a po21 sition to exercise restraint or direction over the other

22 party.

23 ‘‘(c) DISTRIBUTION PROCEDURES.—The Commis24 sioner shall prescribe procedures for distribution of the

25 continued dumping or subsidies offset required by this sec-
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1 tion. Such distribution shall be made not later than 60

2 days after the first day of a fiscal year from duties as3 sessed during the preceding fiscal year.

4 ‘‘(d) PARTIES ELIGIBLE FOR DISTRIBUTION OF

5 ANTIDUMPING AND COUNTERVAILING DUTIES AS6 SESSED.—

7 ‘‘(1) LIST OF AFFECTED DOMESTIC PRODUC8 ERS.—The Commission shall forward to the Com9 missioner within 60 days after the effective date of

10 this section in the case of orders or findings in effect

11 on such effective date, or in any other case, within

12 60 days after the date an antidumping or counter13 vailing duty order or finding is issued, a list of peti14 tioners and persons with respect to each order and

15 finding and a list of persons that indicate support of

16 the petition by letter or through questionnaire re17 sponse. In those cases in which a determination of

18 injury was not required or the Commission’s records

19 do not permit an identification of those in support

20 of a petition, the Commission shall consult with the

21 administering authority to determine the identity of

22 the petitioner and those domestic parties who have

23 entered appearances during administrative reviews

24 conducted by the administering authority under sec25 tion 751.
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1 ‘‘(2) PUBLICATION OF LIST; CERTIFICATION.—

2 The Commissioner shall publish in the Federal Reg3 ister at least 30 days before the distribution of a

4 continued dumping and subsidy offset, a notice of

5 intention to distribute the offset and the list of af6 fected domestic producers potentially eligible for the

7 distribution based on the list obtained from the

8 Commission under paragraph (1). The Commis9 sioner shall request a certification from each poten10 tially eligible affected domestic producer—

11 ‘‘(A) that the producer desires to receive a

12 distribution;

13 ‘‘(B) that the producer is eligible to receive

14 the distribution as an affected domestic pro15 ducer; and

16 ‘‘(C) the qualifying expenditures incurred

17 by the producer since the issuance of the order

18 or finding for which distribution under this sec19 tion has not previously been made.

20 ‘‘(3) DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS.—The Commis21 sioner shall distribute all funds (including all inter22 est earned on the funds) from assessed duties re23 ceived in the preceding fiscal year to affected domes24 tic producers based on the certifications described in

25 paragraph (2). The distributions shall be made on a
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1 pro rata basis based on new and remaining qualify2 ing expenditures.

3 ‘‘(e) SPECIAL ACCOUNTS.—

4 ‘‘(1) ESTABLISHMENTS.—Within 14 days after

5 the effective date of this section, with respect to

6 antidumping duty orders and findings and counter7 vailing duty orders in effect on the effective date of

8 this section, and within 14 days after the date an

9 antidumping duty order or finding or countervailing

10 duty order issued after the effective date takes ef11 fect, the Commissioner shall establish in the Treas12 ury of the United States a special account with re13 spect to each such order or finding.

14 ‘‘(2) DEPOSITS INTO ACCOUNTS.—The Commis15 sioner shall deposit into the special accounts, all

16 antidumping or countervailing duties (including in17 terest earned on such duties) that are assessed after

18 the effective date of this section under the anti19 dumping order or finding or the countervailing duty

20 order with respect to which the account was estab21 lished.

22 ‘‘(3) TIME AND MANNER OF DISTRIBUTIONS.—

23 Consistent with the requirements of subsections (c)

24 and (d), the Commissioner shall by regulation pre-
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1 scribe the time and manner in which distribution of

2 the funds in a special account shall made.

3 ‘‘(4) TERMINATION.—A special account shall

4 terminate after—

5 ‘‘(a) the order or finding with respect to

6 which the account was established has termi7 nated;

8 ‘‘(B) all entries relating to the order or

9 finding are liquidated and duties assessed col10 lected;

11 ‘‘(C) the Commissioner has provided notice

12 and a final opportunity to obtain distribution

13 pursuant to subsection (c); and

14 ‘‘(D) 90 days has elapsed from the date of

15 the notice described in subparagraph (C).

16 Amounts not claimed within 90 days of the date of

17 the notice described in subparagraph (C), shall be

18 deposited into the general fund of the Treasury.’’.

19 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The table of con20 tents for title VII of the Tariff Act of 1930 is amended

21 by inserting the following new item after the item relating

22 to section 753:

‘‘Sec. 754. Continued dumping and subsidy offset.’’.

23 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by

24 this section shall apply with respect to all antidumping
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1 and countervailing duty assessments made on or after Oc2 tober 1, 1996.

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