Chamber Objects to Legislation to Change AD/CVD Laws

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce objects to legislation meant to update antidumping and countervailing duty laws, it said in a letter to leadership of House Ways and Means Committee and its Trade Subcommittee. Soon after the Chamber sent its letter, lawmakers introduced the House version of the Eliminating Global Market Distortions to Protect American Jobs Act, the legislation that the Chamber has concerns about. "The Chamber opposes this bill, which has not been subject to the scrutiny and deliberation required for a complex, far-reaching measure amending U.S. AD/CVD laws," the Chamber said. "This major overhaul of U.S. trade laws could add to inflationary pressures by raising costs for a wide variety of goods, including many products sourced from U.S. allies and partners."

The Senate version was introduced in April (see 2104160037). "The bill has the potential to favor a handful of businesses at the expense of a much wider swath of industries employing many more American workers, thereby undermining the global competitiveness, productivity, and growth prospects of many more U.S. firms in high-growth sectors," the Chamber said. AISI celebrated the House bill, which will help in the "fight for a level playing field against foreign competitors that seek to cheat the system,” CEO Kevin Dempsey said.

Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., and Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, cosponsored the House companion to the Senate bill, which is also bipartisan. They said that reforming antidumping laws would make it easier for petitioners to bring new cases when production moves to a new country after antidumping or countervailing duties have been applied to the product in the first country. Sewell said that by allowing the Commerce Department to consider Chinese subsidies when its companies are operating in third countries, it will push back on "China’s egregious efforts to manipulate the global market in their favor."

The Chamber's letter also requested congressional "action on long-stalled, but traditionally bipartisan, Generalized System of Preferences legislation and the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill." as well as on bringing back the "administration’s largely moribund Section 301 tariff exclusion process."