Bills Introduced to Require Interest Payments to Honey, Crawfish, Garlic, Mushroom Producers

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and three Republican senators reintroduced the China Trade Cheating Restitution Act to require CBP to pay interest on distributions of antidumping duties and countervailing duties to domestic producers under the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act, which applies to entries prior to Sept. 30, 2007.

Congress repealed the law that sent antidumping and countervailing duty revenue to domestic producers hurt by those imports after the World Trade Organization said it was illegal, and trading partners began to impose retaliatory tariffs over the issue (see 04112915).

They say producers of honey, crawfish, mushrooms and garlic are owed about $38.5 million in interest under the CDSOA, also known as the Byrd Amendment. Some of these firms are also suing for the money (see 2305050047 and 2302140060).

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in the June 8 news release: "Our bipartisan bill is a necessary measure to restore fairness to international trade and compensate producers who were injured by the Chinese Communist Party."

"South Dakota is one of the top honey-producing states in the country,” Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said in the release. "The unfair practice of circumventing U.S. trade laws, which jeopardizes honey producers’ financial security, should be met with strict enforcement and increased protections."

In addition to specifying the payments must go out, it would amend the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 to move the date of interest collected by the CBP to be dispersed from Oct. 1, 2014, to Oct. 1, 2000, because the senators say there was "substantial interest withheld by CBP beginning in 2000."

A bipartisan bill was introduced in the House of Representatives the same day, by Reps. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., David Valadao, R-Calif., Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., and Jim Costa, D-Calif.

The House members focused on the garlic growers in the news release. They say garlic producers are owed $10.5 million.

“While the federal government has collected dumping duties on garlic imports from China, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency has not paid the full restitution to impacted producers,” Panetta said in the release. “This bipartisan legislation would ensure that the federal government takes action to correct these failures, by paying all collected duties and interest to those in our agricultural sector who deserve it."

The bill was introduced by Tester in 2022, and Panetta in 2021, but didn't get a vote in either committee of jurisdiction, nor on the floor of the House or Senate.