Title: Play by the Rules Act of 2019
Policy area: Foreign Trade and International Finance

Summary:
Play by the Rules Act of 2019
This bill subjects certain merchandise from a nonmarket economy country (a foreign country that does not operate on market principles of cost or pricing structures) to existing antidumping or countervailing duty orders.
The Department of Commerce shall include any merchandise from a nonmarket economy country that is only slightly altered in form or appearance within the class or kind of merchandise that is already subject to (1) an investigation, (2) an antidumping duty order, (3) a finding under the Antidumping Act of 1921, or (4) a countervailing duty order.
Additionally, Commerce may include within the scope of an investigation, order, or finding any merchandise from a nonmarket economy country that is (1) slightly altered in form or appearance but was not previously included within the scope of such investigation, order, or finding; or (2) interchangeable with imports that are already subject to such investigation, order, or finding.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2900 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2900

    To amend the Tariff Act of 1930 to prevent the circumvention of 
 antidumping and countervailing duties by nonmarket economy countries, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           November 19, 2019

 Ms. Baldwin (for herself, Mrs. Capito, Mr. Cassidy, and Ms. Stabenow) 
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 prevent the circumvention of 
 antidumping and countervailing duties by nonmarket economy countries, 
                        and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Play by the Rules Act of 2019''.

SEC. 2. PREVENTION OF CIRCUMVENTION OF ANTIDUMPING AND COUNTERVAILING 
              DUTIES BY NONMARKET ECONOMY COUNTRIES.

    Section 781 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1677j) is 
amended--
            (1) in subsection (c), by adding at the end the following:
            ``(3) Treatment of merchandise from nonmarket economy 
        countries.--
                    ``(A) Exclusion of application of exception.--With 
                respect to merchandise from nonmarket economy 
                countries, the exception in paragraph (2) shall not 
                apply.
                    ``(B) Inclusion of merchandise outside of scope.--
                With respect to merchandise from nonmarket economy 
                countries, the administering authority may consider any 
                such merchandise that is altered in form or appearance 
                in minor respects (including raw agricultural products 
                that have undergone minor processing) as being subject 
                to paragraph (1) notwithstanding that such merchandise 
                was not included in the scope of the investigation, 
                order, or finding described in such paragraph.'';
            (2) by redesignating subsections (e) and (f) as subsections 
        (f) and (g), respectively; and
            (3) by inserting after subsection (d) the following:
    ``(e) Treatment of Certain Merchandise From Nonmarket Economy 
Countries.--If the administering authority finds that imports into the 
United States of merchandise from a nonmarket economy country have 
increased and imports of the merchandise are interchangeable in the 
market with imports of merchandise subject to an antidumping duty order 
issued under section 736, a finding issued under the Antidumping Act, 
1921, or a countervailing duty order issued under section 706 or 
section 303, the administering authority may include within the scope 
of such order or finding the merchandise imported from the nonmarket 
economy country at any time such order or finding is in effect.''.
                                 <all>