II 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 433 

To establish a benefit calculation methodology with respect to currency undervaluation for purposes of countervailing duty investigations and reviews, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 10, 2015 

Mr. SESSIONS (for himself, Mr. BROWN, Mr. GRAHAM, Mr. SCHUMER, Mr. 

BURR, Ms. STABENOW, Ms. COLLINS, Mr. CASEY, Mr. DONNELLY, and 

Mr. PORTMAN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 

referred to the Committee on Finance 

A BILL 

To establish a benefit calculation methodology with respect 

to currency undervaluation for purposes of countervailing 

duty investigations and reviews, and for other purposes. 

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 ‘‘Currency Undervalu5 ation Investigation Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. INVESTIGATION OR REVIEW OF CURRENCY UNDER2 VALUATION UNDER COUNTERVAILING DUTY 

3 LAW. 

4 Subsection (c) of section 702 of the Tariff Act of 

5 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1671a(c)) is amended by adding at the 

6 end the following: 

7 ‘‘(6) CURRENCY UNDERVALUATION.—For pur8 poses of a countervailing duty investigation under 

9 this subtitle in which the determinations under 

10 clauses (i) and (ii) of paragraph (1)(A) are affirma11 tive, or a review under subtitle C with respect to a 

12 countervailing duty order, the administering author13 ity shall initiate an investigation to determine wheth14 er currency undervaluation by the government of a 

15 country or any public entity within the territory of 

16 a country is providing, directly or indirectly, a 

17 countervailable subsidy, if— 

18 ‘‘(A) a petition filed by an interested party 

19 (described in subparagraph (C), (D), (E), (F), 

20 or (G) of section 771(9)) alleges the elements 

21 necessary for the imposition of the duty im22 posed by section 701(a); and 

23 ‘‘(B) the petition is accompanied by infor24 mation reasonably available to the petitioner 

25 supporting those allegations.’’. 


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1 SEC. 3. BENEFIT CALCULATION METHODOLOGY WITH RE2 SPECT TO CURRENCY UNDERVALUATION. 

3 Section 771 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 

4 1677) is amended by adding at the end the following: 

5 ‘‘(37) CURRENCY UNDERVALUATION BEN6 EFIT.— 

7 ‘‘(A) CURRENCY UNDERVALUATION BEN8 EFIT.—For purposes of a countervailing duty 

9 investigation under subtitle A, or a review 

10 under subtitle C with respect to a counter11 vailing duty order, the following shall apply: 

12 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—If the admin13 istering authority determines to investigate 

14 whether currency undervaluation provides 

15 a countervailable subsidy, the admin16 istering authority shall determine whether 

17 there is a benefit to the recipient of that 

18 subsidy and measure such benefit by com19 paring the simple average of the real ex20 change rates derived from application of 

21 the macroeconomic-balance approach and 

22 the equilibrium-real-exchange-rate ap23 proach to the official daily exchange rate 

24 identified by the administering authority. 

25 ‘‘(ii) RELIANCE ON DATA.—In making 

26 the determination under clause (i), the adVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:16 Feb 18, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S433.IS S433

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1 ministering authority shall rely upon data 

2 that are publicly available, reliable, and 

3 compiled and maintained by the Inter4 national Monetary Fund or the World 

5 Bank, or other international organizations 

6 or national governments if data from the 

7 International Monetary Fund or World 

8 Bank are not available. 

9 ‘‘(B) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph: 

10 ‘‘(i) MACROECONOMIC-BALANCE AP11 PROACH.—The term ‘macroeconomic-bal12 ance approach’ means a methodology 

13 under which the level of undervaluation of 

14 the real effective exchange rate of the cur15 rency of the exporting country is defined 

16 as the change in the real effective exchange 

17 rate needed to achieve equilibrium in the 

18 balance of payments of the exporting coun19 try, as such methodology is described in 

20 the guidelines of the International Mone21 tary Fund’s Consultative Group on Ex22 change Rate Issues, if available. 

23 ‘‘(ii) EQUILIBRIUM-REAL-EXCHANGE24 RATE APPROACH.—The term ‘equilibrium25 real-exchange-rate approach’ means a 


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1 methodology under which the level of 

2 undervaluation of the real effective ex3 change rate of the currency of the export4 ing country is defined as the difference be5 tween the observed real effective exchange 

6 rate and the real effective exchange rate, 

7 as such methodology is described in the 

8 guidelines of the International Monetary 

9 Fund’s Consultative Group on Exchange 

10 Rate Issues, if available. 

11 ‘‘(iii) REAL EXCHANGE RATES.—The 

12 term ‘real exchange rates’ means the bilat13 eral exchange rates derived from con14 verting the trade-weighted multilateral ex15 change rates yielded by the macro16 economic-balance approach and the equi17 librium-real-exchange-rate approach into 

18 real bilateral terms.’’. 

19 SEC. 4. MODIFICATION OF DEFINITION OF SPECIFICITY 

20 WITH RESPECT TO EXPORT SUBSIDY. 

21 Section 771(5A)(B) of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 

22 U.S.C. 1677(5A)(B)) is amended by adding at the end 

23 the following new sentence: ‘‘The fact that a subsidy may 

24 also be provided in circumstances that do not involve ex25 port shall not, for that reason alone, mean that the subVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:16 Feb 18, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S433.IS S433

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1 sidy cannot be considered contingent upon export perform2 ance.’’. 

3 SEC. 5. APPLICATION TO CANADA AND MEXICO. 

4 Pursuant to article 1902 of the North American Free 

5 Trade Agreement and section 408 of the North American 

6 Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 

7 3438), the amendments made by this Act shall apply with 

8 respect to goods from Canada and Mexico. 

9 SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE. 

10 The amendments made by this Act apply to counter11 vailing duty investigations initiated under subtitle A of 

12 title VII of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1671 et 

13 seq.) and reviews initiated under subtitle C of title VII 

14 of such Act (19 U.S.C. 1675 et seq.)— 

15 (1) before the date of the enactment of this 

16 Act, if the investigation or review is pending a final 

17 determination as of such date of enactment; and 

18 (2) on or after such date of enactment. 

Æ 


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