A bipartisan bill cosponsored on Dec. 13 by U.S. Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) would require the federal government to pay impacted American producers the required restitution it has collected from antidumping duties on Chinese imports.
“It is critical Congress works together to ensure these producers receive the payments they are due,” said Rep. Valadao on Monday.
The China Trade Cheating Restitution Act of 2021, H.R. 6254, which is sponsored by U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), specifically would require U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to distribute delinquency interest collected on antidumping duties between 2000 and 2014 to domestic producers of goods subject to these duties, according to a bill summary provided by Rep. Valadao’s staff.
“The U.S. Customs and Border Protection has a legal responsibility to distribute all antidumping duties and interest to those facing unfair foreign competition, and it is unacceptable for the agency to withhold more than a decade’s worth of collected interest from these producers,” Rep. Valadao said. “I am happy to work across the aisle with Rep. Panetta to support our domestic industries and address this truly bipartisan issue.”
The CBP is required under the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000 to distribute all antidumping duties and accrued interest collected on dumped imports to U.S. producers on products that arrived prior to Oct. 1, 2007. But the CBP in 2014 reported that such distributions failed to include certain collected interest payments.
While Congress subsequently instructed the department to start including those payments in distributions, according to information provided by the congressman’s staff, U.S. producers in industries such as garlic and honey, among others, were not compensated for the undisbursed interest payments collected prior to action by Congress, the information says.
“By dumping garlic into our market, Chinese importers have long inflicted serious economic harm, especially, on our California producers,” said Rep. Valadao. “With this legislation, we are ensuring that the federal government lives up to its responsibilities not only to prevent dumping, but also to provide the proper remedy to our producers of American agriculture.”