Trade Disputes & Compliance

An antidumping (AD) duty is a tariff that a country’s government imposes on the imports of certain merchandise from another country that it determines are priced below fair value (“dumped”) and are causing financial injury to the domestic industry producing that merchandise. An AD duty is intended to level the playing field between domestic and foreign merchandise producers. Under the Tariff Act of 1930, a U.S. industry may petition the government for relief from imports that it believes are dumped.

Since the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations in the mid-1990s, our international trade professionals have assisted counsel in an array of AD proceedings, including those involving market economy (ME) and non-market economy (NME) countries.

Our professionals assist in developing transaction-specific sales and product-specific cost data for submission to the U.S. Department of Commerce and other relevant governmental agencies in antidumping investigations and reviews. Often, the requisite data does not exist in the form accepted by the authority. We provide support throughout all phases of the process and work closely with counsel and their clients to ensure that the client’s responses are developed and submitted in the proper and verifiable form, and within the stringent deadlines to meet the relevant agency's reporting requirements. Our work is performed both at the client’s site and from our offices in Washington, D.C.

Our support and processes include:

• Planning and setting up project teams, including coordinating across multiple entities and company sites
• Providing technical assistance in accounting, information systems, and financial and economic analyses
• Identifying alternative means of quantifying price adjustments and production costs that allow data to be presented in the most favorable manner within the agency's normal practice and regulations
• Working with counsel and the respondent company to prepare the financial and cost reconciliations to financial statements, as required by the relevant governmental agency
• Preparing for successful verification of the data
• Providing continued post-submission support, such as defining and implementing price monitoring systems to mitigate clients' potential duties in future proceeding segments

A countervailing duty (CVD) is a tariff that a country’s government imposes on the imports of certain merchandise from another country that it determines are benefitting from prohibited government subsidies received by the foreign producers of that merchandise and are causing financial injury to the domestic industry producing that merchandise. A CVD is intended to level the playing field between domestic and foreign producers of the subject merchandise. Under the Tariff Act of 1930, a U.S. industry may petition the government for relief from imports that it believes violate the statute.

As with antidumping cases, our team assists law firms and their clients in the development of the overall submission methodology and the preparation and review of narrative responses in CVD investigations. We provide support throughout all phases of the process, including preparing for and actively participating in verification. We also review the government agency's calculations for accuracy.

Our support and processes include:

• Planning and setting up project teams
• Working with counsel and the respondent company to identify programs subject to countervailing duties
• Developing strategies to avoid unreported subsidies that can lead to the application of adverse inferences
• Aiding in researching possible benchmarks to be used in the subsidy calculations
• Assisting with preparing detailed purchase information for reporting verifiable less than adequate remuneration (LTAR) schedules
• Assisting companies in reconciling their reported subsidy information with the company’s financial records
• Preparing for successful verification of the data

Our most recent projects include the following:

• Less than Fair Value Investigation (LTFV) of Common Alloy Aluminum Sheet from India and Germany — AD
• LTFV of Passenger Vehicle and Light Truck Tires from the Republic of Korea — AD
• LTFV Silicon Metal from Brazil — AD
• LTFV Refillable Stainless-Steel Kegs from the Federal Republic of Germany — AD
• LTFV Uncoated Groundwood Paper from Canada — AD and CVD
• LTFV Certain Quartz Surface Products from China — AD, CVD and NME
• Administrative Review (AR) Hot-Rolled Steel Flat Products from Japan and Korea — AD
• AR Large Diameter Welded Pipe from Canada — AD
• AR Softwood Lumber from Canada — AD and CVD
• AR Large Power Transformers from Korea — AD
• AR Cut-to-Length Carbon Steel Plate from Ukraine — AD Suspension Agreement
• AR Certain Cold-Drawn Mechanical Tubing of Carbon and Alloy Steel from Switzerland — AD
• AR Frozen Fish Fillets from Vietnam — AD and NME

Our team has wide-ranging experience in quantifying and analyzing antidumping margins. Our professionals have developed programs and report templates that can be tailored to the facts of each proceeding, enabling us to analyze a respondent’s data quickly and enabling counsel and their clients to more fully understand the factors that drive potential antidumping liability.

These tools have proven extremely effective in analyzing the sensitivity of margins to alternative product matching, price adjustments and product costing methodologies. They also can be used to identify the specific cause of any antidumping margin (e.g., the pricing of specific products in the domestic market, movement charges, selling expenses or production costs). This analysis is critical in ensuring the most effective representation during a proceeding. In addition, we assist in developing a respondent’s strategic plan for managing antidumping margins if an antidumping order is imposed.

We can also research possible benchmarks and develop subsidy rate estimates based on our assessment of countervailable subsidy programs.

We review the government agency’s margin calculations and subsidy rates at the preliminary and final determination stages to identify clerical errors and verify that the appropriate methodology has been applied. The information is used to assist in preparing case and rebuttal briefs and to propose alternative methodologies that might be more beneficial to the respondent.

CBIZ works with law firms and their clients to develop strategies for managing antidumping duty liability. While this is critical for companies already operating under antidumping constraints, such strategies can also be equally important for companies not yet involved in an antidumping action. We can assess the potential antidumping duty liability, communicate this information to management and assist in developing optimal strategies for managing the liability.

Our professionals have worked with several law firms on various aspects of prior disclosures to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). We are adept at working with transactional data, financial and management accounting records, preparing reconciliations and designing statistically valid samples. Our support has included the following:

• Assisting with identification, extraction and review of financial accounting data to be disclosed
• Assisting with organization and analysis of transactional entry data
• Reviewing documentation for selected sample entries
• Calculating, reviewing and comparing customs values based on various acceptable methodologies
• Assisting with the development of statistically valid sampling methodology to propose to CBP for selecting specific entries for review and quantification of unpaid duties
• Calculating interest payments due on unpaid duties under various assumptions