Anti-Dumping & Countervailing Duty Law

Broadly speaking, a foreign company "dumps" its merchandise in the United States if it sells merchandise for export to the United States at prices that are lower than the prices charged by the company for the same merchandise in its home market. When an American company believes that a foreign competitor is dumping merchandise in the United States, the U.S. company can file a petition with the United States Department of Commerce ("DOC") and the U.S. International Trade Commission ("ITC") alleging that a product is being dumped and that the dumping is causing material injury to a U.S. industry. If the petition is supported by evidence reasonably available to the petitioner, DOC will initiate an investigation to determine the extent of the alleged dumping and the ITC will initiate a concurrent investigation to determine whether the alleged dumping is causing or threatens to cause material injury to the U.S. industry.

If DOC and the ITC make affirmative findings of dumping and injury, DOC will publish an order imposing antidumping duties on imports of the subject merchandise in amounts equal to the size of the dumping margins, i.e., amounts equal to the difference between the United States price and the normal value. An American company that believes a foreign competitor is being unfairly subsidized by a foreign government may petition DOC and the ITC for the imposition of "countervailing duties" on products exported to the United States. If DOC determines that unfair subsidies are being provided and the ITC determines that subsidized imports are causing or threaten to cause material injury to a U.S. industry, the United States will publish a countervailing duty order and assess countervailing duties on the subsidized products in an amount equivalent to the benefit conferred by the unfair subsidies.

RoybalGlobal P.C., in conjunction with the international trade law firm of deKieffer and Horgan, works with clients in all stages of antidumping and countervailing duty cases, including investigations, administrative and sunset reviews, and appeals to the Court of International Trade and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. We represent both petitioners and respondents and handle both the DOC and the ITC phases of these cases. In addition, we counsel foreign clients and their importers on practices that will keep them from becoming the target of an antidumping or countervailing duty investigation, and we assist them in structuring their U.S. sales to permit the foreign suppliers to reenter the U.S. market if they have been forced out in the wake of such an investigation. Finally, so-called sunset reviews are reviews of antidumping and countervailing duty orders that are conducted every five years by the DOC and the ITC to determine whether the order could be terminated without injury to the U.S. industry by reason of continued dumping or subsidization of the foreign industry subject to the order.

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