Bipartisan Bill Aims at Spurring More Self-Initiated AD/CV Investigations

A bill that would create a Commerce Department task force focused on potential self-initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations was to be introduced Feb. 14, Senators Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., announced. The International Trade Administration task force would investigate imports that could be subject to AD/CV duties and refer abuses for formal investigation. The bill instructs the task force to place its emphasis on small and medium domestic producers that are being undercut by unfair imports.

The Commerce Department generally starts AD/CVD investigations after a company that is hurt by foreign competition requests it. Commerce also requires that companies that account for at least 25 percent of domestic production of the product in question sign on to the complaint, and that companies that represent at least half of the domestic market support the petition. Burr said this bill would encourage the agency "to flag more potential trade abuses for investigation."

The agency did self-initiate an AD/CVD investigation of Chinese aluminum in November, but that was the first time it had self-initiated a countervailing duty investigation in 26 years. The last self-initiated antidumping investigation was in 1985, on Japanese semiconductors (see 1711290033). The administration has until April 20 to decide how to respond to Commerce's conclusion that Chinese aluminum is unfairly subsidized.

Peters mentioned the idea to President Donald Trump at the trade discussion at the White House the day before his announcement (see 1802130040). He told the president that small businesses can't afford to hire lawyers to bring a trade enforcement case, "so we're working on legislation to give [Commerce] Secretary [Wilbur] Ross, the Department of Commerce, more tools to help our small businesses." Trump responded that "it's a fantastic idea," and asked Ross if he was working on it. Ross told him he was.

Phil Korson, head of the Cherry Marketing Institute, said his trade group representing 600 tart cherry growers, has been complaining about Turkish competition for years. Korson said that there were 230 million pounds of imports in 2016, which is primarily cherry juice concentrate. Korson said 60 percent of the imports come from Turkey.

The United States produced 251 million pounds of tart cherries in 2015-2016, according to the Department of Agriculture, with a total value of $87 million. The average annual revenues from tart cherries per producer was $145,000 that year.

As the Agriculture Department considered a request for how to regulate the handling of tart cherries and tart cherry products, cherry growers disagreed on how much supply to commercial sellers should be restricted in order to protect prices. Some growers said the volume of imports should be considered, and that the domestic market could supply 90 million pounds more than the restricted level. "Others noted that trying to compete for those markets by matching the price of imported concentrate would drop grower returns to an unsustainable level," the rulemaking decision said.

The department classifies some of the crop as free, which can be shipped to any market; restricted production must be used in noncompetitive outlets, or diverted to reserves.

Korson said disagreement within the industry is not the barrier to bringing an antidumping complaint to Commerce. "The issue that we face is the sheer cost of a dumping case," he said in an interview with International Trade Today while in Washington lobbying. "That’s why we haven’t done anything on our own."