Many More Millions Dedicated to Trade Enforcement in Senate Appropriations Proposal

Senate Democrats would like to increase funding for CBP's Office of Trade by $10 million to better identify and prevent entry of goods made with forced labor, and an additional $10 million for trade enforcement, including the 21st Century Framework initiative, enforcement of safeguard and sections 232 and 301 tariffs, and going after online counterfeiting.

The $20 million in additional funding would bring total funding to the Office of Trade to almost $310 million in the next fiscal year.

However, no appropriations can pass the Senate without the support of at least 10 Republicans, and these spending levels were not worked out in compromise with Republican appropriators. These elements were also not part of the House appropriators' plans.

In detailing the appropriations bill, the committee also said how it is going to give $5 million to the Science and Technology directorate in Homeland Security, to develop analytic capabilities to assess how much CBP's forced labor enforcement is affecting the prevalence of forced labor around the globe, and how the federal efforts "impact U.S. businesses." That analysis should be done in partnership with CBP's Office of Trade, the committee said.

Senate Democrats want to give the Commerce Department $6.5 million more than what the administration requested for antidumping and countervailing duty enforcement, part of a $43 million increase to the International Trade Administration over current spending.

Also in Commerce, the appropriators want to increase funding at the Bureau of Industry and Security by $9 million, because they say it's needed "to continue executing the substantial number of exemption requests to the steel and aluminum tariffs."

The International Trade Commission would get an additional $16 million, with overall funding of $119 million "to execute a record enforcement caseload."

The senators say they are continuing to ask CBP to "to modify targeting criteria and make additional changes necessary to provide CBP with the administrative flexibility required to identify transshipped products." They also are asking CBP to write a report on the benefits and risks of creating a rebuttable presumption of duty evasion if there is a prior CBP finding of evasion at a company. That report would be due 180 days after passage.

The appropriators say they feel that CBP should not be requesting repayment of Continued Dumping and Subsidy Act payments that were calculated in error, or because CBP lost a lawsuit or reached a settlement. They said such repayment requests are "counter to the clear intent of the statute. By recouping revenue paid to domestic companies, and assessing interest charges, CBP is counteracting the intent to allow industries the opportunity to rehire and reinvest."

But the explanation stops short of ordering CBP not to collect these funds. Instead, they tell CBP to determine the impact of the repayment requests on firms, "and to notify the Committee prior to recouping such payments or reducing future payments."

The senators also question whether some aluminum product importers are being charged the 10% tariff on aluminum products that were made from scrap or recycled aluminum, or from aluminum imported from Argentina, Australia, Canada or Mexico. They are asking CBP to review whether the tariffs are being administered properly, and said that when that review is done, "the Committee looks forward to reviewing CBP’s detailed findings and related action plan to address any inappropriate assessments."