U.S. laws provide a variety of avenues for U.S. industries, including agricultural producers, to seek relief when they believe they have been injured by the effects of trade. Trade remedies, the primary means of such relief, are designed to counter the economic effects on U.S. producers of imports sold in the United States at unfairly low prices or of exports that benefit from a foreign government's domestic or export subsidies. They might also be sought to reduce the impacts of surges in fairly-traded imports. The use of trade remedies has grown along with increased U.S. involvement in trade agreements. Trade relief is viewed as a cushion against the potentially negative impacts of trade liberalization on import-sensitive products – a number of them agricultural – thus helping to build broader political support for trade agreements. U.S. trade remedy laws generally reflect and are subject to international trade rules, notably those under the World Trade Organization (WTO) multilateral agreements and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). On the one hand, other countries, utilizing various WTO and NAFTA rules and procedures, can and do challenge the legality of some U.S. actions taken under its trade remedy laws. On the other hand, when such U.S. laws are applied in conformity with the international trade rules, WTO and NAFTA dispute settlement procedures can serve to validate and strengthen any U.S. actions taken. In addition, U.S. producers, working through U.S. trade officials, might also tap WTO and NAFTA to resolve trade issues on a consultative or other lower-profile basis before they escalate into more costly, contentious cases involving hearing panels, appeals, sanctions, and the like. ( Appendix A describes provisions and procedures on dispute settlement under the WTO and NAFTA.) Some prominent examples where segments of U.S. agriculture have formally sought import relief in recent years include cattle imports from Canada and Mexico; wheat imports from Canada; lamb meat imports primarily from Australia and New Zealand; wheat gluten from Europe; and apple juice and honey from China, among others. As U.S. producers of these items have found, the procedures for pursuing trade remedies are somewhat complex, resource-intensive, and time consuming. Winning a case is even more difficult. Currently, federal law provides for four primary trade remedies. Three address import concerns: safeguards (or escape clause), antidumping duties (AD), and countervailing duties (CVD). The fourth, commonly called Section 301, is the principal tool to challenge unfair foreign trade practices that affect U.S. commerce generally, including exports to other countries. The Trade Act of 1974 provides for the imposition of temporary duties, quotas, or other restrictions on imports that are traded fairly but which cause or threaten to cause injury to a domestic industry. The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) makes the determination of injury. This provision is intended to provide relief from injurious competition when temporary protection will enable the domestic industry to make adjustments to meet the competition from imports. Also, unlike antidumping and countervailing duty cases (see below), safeguard cases encompass imports from throughout the world, not specific countries. Safeguard procedures can be invoked by petition from affected parties (an association, industry group, or other organization), Presidential request, request of House Ways and Means or Senate Finance Committees, or the ITC's own initiative. Industry petitioners are encouraged to submit, along with their petition, a plan to promote positive adjustment to the competition from imports. During the course of its investigation of the petition or request, the ITC must take into account all relevant economic factors, including certain specific factors enumerated in the statute and must consider the condition of the industry over the relevant business cycle. If the ITC determines that imports have been a "substantial cause" of "serious injury" or the threat thereof to the industry, it recommends remedial measures which must include an increase in tariffs on the imported product, a tariff-rate quota (TRQ), a quantitative restriction, adjustment measures, or a combination of those measures. The ITC submits its recommendations to the President, who decides whether or not to impose the import restrictions. In making a decision about what action is appropriate, the President must consider such factors as the industry's adjustment plan, the plan's probable effectiveness to promote positive adjustment, other factors related to the national economic interest, and the national security interest. The President can impose safeguards for an initial period of up to 4 years and may extend the action one or more years, but the total period or import relief may not exceed 8 years. The President must report to Congress the actions he plans to take. Should the President decide to take actions other than those recommended by the ITC or to take no action, Congress may direct him to implement the recommendations of the ITC by enacting a joint resolution of disapproval of his proposed action. Safeguards must be applied in conformity with the Agreement on Safeguards agreed to during the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations. This WTO agreement provides rules for the application of Article XIX of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT, 1947). Rules negotiated in the Agreement provide for greater transparency in procedures and limitations on the duration of relief measures. Expanding on Article XIX, the Agreement provides that a WTO member country may not exercise its right to take retaliatory action during the first 3 years that a safeguard is in effect, provided that the safeguard measure resulted from an absolute increase in imports and otherwise conforms to the Agreement. U.S. obligations under NAFTA also affect the use of safeguards vis-a-vis Canada and Mexico. Chapter 8 of NAFTA provides, among other things, that escape clause measures against NAFTA members generally last no more than three years. Section 311 of the NAFTA Implementation Act ( P.L. 103-182 , 19 U.S.C. 3371) provides that a relief action is not to apply to imports from Canada or Mexico unless they account for a substantial share of total imports of a good. Trade law provides also for the imposition of countervailing duties on goods imported into the United States if the Department of Commerce (DOC) determines that a countervailable subsidy is being provided by a foreign government and if the ITC determines that the imports are causing or threatening to cause material injury to a U.S. industry. The purpose of CVD law is to offset any unfair competitive advantage that foreign manufacturers or exporters might have over U.S. producers because of foreign countervailable subsidies. Countervailable subsidies could include a wide range of practices such as export subsidies, import substitution subsidies, and domestic subsidies provided to a specific industry or to inputs used by an industry. Trade law also authorizes antidumping duties on imported goods if the DOC determines that an imported product is being sold at less than its fair value, and if the ITC determines that a U.S. producer is thereby being injured. Dumping is a form of price discrimination whereby goods are sold in one export market at prices lower than the prices of comparable goods in the home market or in other export markets. Although CVD and AD laws are aimed at different forms of unfair trade, they are similar procedurally and substantively. CVD and AD investigations may be initiated by the DOC or by an interested party. Interested parties may be a manufacturer or producer; a union or group or workers representative of the affected industry; a trade or business association; a coalition of firms, unions, or trade associations; or a coalition or trade association, representative of processors or, in the case of processed agricultural products, processors and growers. Petitions are filed simultaneously with the DOC and the ITC. If the DOC decides the petition is legally sufficient to commence an investigation, one is initiated with respect to imports of a particular product from a particular country. The ITC makes a preliminary determination as to whether there is a "reasonable indication" that imports in question are causing or threaten to cause material injury to the industry. An affirmative decision allows the investigation to proceed; a negative decision terminates the investigation. The DOC then must make a preliminary determination whether dumping or subsidies have taken place and, if so, make a preliminary calculation of what the dumping or subsidy margin would be. Regardless of whether the DOC's preliminary determination is positive or negative, the DOC continues the investigation and makes a final determination of dumping or subsidies and a final calculation of duty margins. The investigation is terminated if DOC makes a negative final determination. In the event of an affirmative final determination, then the ITC continues its investigation and renders a final determination of material injury or threat thereof. A negative ITC determination terminates the investigation. If the two final determinations are affirmative, then extra duties are placed on imports to be paid by the importer. The determinations are subject to judicial review and also may be challenged in the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. Both the DOC and the ITC must take into account a number of criteria in making their respective determinations. In CVD cases, the DOC must consider evidence of direct subsidies or upstream subsidies (subsidies provided to inputs the benefits of which are passed on to the final producer); if found, the DOC must determine what would be the net countervailable subsidy. In AD cases the DOC must first determine the "normal value" of the import (based on the price in the exporting country's home market, on the price of the export of the product to a third country market, or on a "constructed" price, depending on the availability of data). The DOC must compare the "normal value" with the actual price of the import in question to determine whether dumping is taking place and, if so, what the dumping margin is. In either procedure, the ITC must make two determinations: (1) Is the domestic industry being materially injured or facing a threat of material injury?