House Resolution Supports Effective Enforcement of Trade Laws
10/01/2010 - Representatives Roy Blunt, Spencer Bachus, Sam Graves, Jo Ann Emerson, Todd Akin, and Blaine Luetkemeyer have introduced House Resolution 1681, supporting effective enforcement of United States trade laws. The Coalition for Enforcement of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Orders praises the resolution.
Representatives Roy Blunt, Spencer Bachus, Sam Graves, Jo Ann Emerson, Todd Akin, and Blaine Luetkemeyer have introduced House Resolution 1681, supporting effective enforcement of United States trade laws.
The Coalition for Enforcement of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Orders praised the resolution, which noted the blatant and widespread schemes of some foreign producers and certain complicit U.S. importers to engage in transshipment, document fraud, and false descriptions of imported merchandise subject to antidumping and countervailing duty orders.
The non-binding resolution recognizes the critical roles played by the Department of Commerce and U.S. Customs and Border Protection in administering and enforcing U.S. trade laws; supports aggressive and effective enforcement of U.S. trade laws to protect U.S. revenue and consumers, and to remedy harm to injured U.S. companies, industries, and American workers; and encourages international trading partners to take prompt action to ensure that foreign companies exporting to the U.S. respect and abide by all requirement of U.S. trade laws, including antidumping and countervailing duty orders.
"We thank Representatives Blunt, Bachus, Graves, Emerson, Akin, and Luetkemeyer for recognizing that illegal duty evasion schemes are a major problem that affects all Americans," said Milton Magnus, CEO of M&B Metal Products in Leeds, Ala., and spokesperson for the Coalition. "These schemes not only injure our domestic industries, but they cause the loss of good-paying jobs and cost the U.S. Treasury well over a hundred million dollars in uncollected duties each year."
In August, legislation was introduced in the U.S. Senate to address illegal evasion of antidumping and countervailing duty orders by importers and their foreign suppliers who systematically violate trade laws. The Enforcing Orders and Reducing Circumvention and Evasion (ENFORCE) Act of 2010 would give important new tools to the Commerce and Customs to combat these illegal schemes, the Coalition notes.
The Coalition for Enforcement of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Orders consists of the following companies: Mid Continent Nail (Poplar Bluff, Mo.), M&B Metal Products (Leeds, Ala.), Vulcan Threaded Products (Pelham, Ala.), Leggett & Platt, Inc. (Carthage, Mo.), American Spring Wire Co. (Bedford Heights, Ohio), Insteel Industries (Mt. Airy, N.C.), John Maneely Co. (Beachwood, Ohio), Geo Specialty Chemicals (Lafayette, Ind.) and SSW Holding Co. (Elizabethtown, Ky.). These companies are American manufacturers of various products that are impacted by these illegal schemes.
