Wyden Applauds Release of New Rules Strengthening Trade Enforcement

Rules Released Today by Customs & Border Protection Will Implement the Enforce and Protect Act of 2015, Wyden-Authored Legislation Designed to Strengthen Trade Enforcement and Protect U.S. Jobs

WASHINGTON – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today applauded the release of interim rules implementing the Enforce and Protect Act of 2015, legislation written by Senator Wyden to strengthen the enforcement of U.S. trade laws, protect American workers and businesses and hold foreign countries to their commitments.

“This is a big step forward in terms of tough enforcement of the trade laws on the books,” Wyden said. “The trade cheats have proven they’ll go down every avenue they can to get illegally imported products into our market, undermining our workers and manufacturers. Finally stronger tools are in place to crack down on duty evasion to protect American jobs. I’m pleased with how these pro-jobs rules have come together, and I’m going to continue working with CBP throughout the implementation process to make sure they’re successful.”

The Enforce and Protect Act, signed into law earlier this year, creates a rapid response timeline by which U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) must investigate and respond to allegations of evasion of anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders. Those orders place extra duties on imported merchandise that are “dumped,” or sold for below market value or subsidized by a foreign government. Foreign exporters and importers frequently attempt to evade those duties by, for example, misrepresenting the origin of the imports. The Enforce and Protect Act requires CBP to initiate an investigation pursuant to the petition within 15 days and gives CBP 90 days after an investigation begins to make a preliminary determination as to whether there is reason to believe an importer is evading U.S. trade laws.

CBP’s interim regulations implementing the Enforce and Protect Act are available here and will come into effect on August 22.

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