One of the areas where revenue collections have taken a hit for the U.S. government has been with antidumping and countervailing duties. That will now come to something of an end. In the Federal Register dated October 3, 2011, the International Trade Administration of the Dept. of Commerce (ITA) published a change to its procedures. Effective for investigations commenced based on petitions filed on or after November 2, 2011, the ITA will now require cash to be deposited once an affirmative preliminary determination has been made.
Previously a bond was permitted, but the sureties had long ago changed their underwriting guidelines, so that if a bond was written for an entry which involved antidumping or countervailing duty, the surety required 100% collateral. So, in a sense this cash deposit requirement is not a change. In fact, one of the hurdles many importers found was the surety retained its collateral until at least 180 days after entry liquidation.
Questions left open by this change include how will the cash deposit be processed, as right now Customs has a procedure to accept bonds, but not typically cash? Once the case is finalized, how quickly will the cash be returned to the importer if dumping or countervailing duty is found to not exist or the case expires? How quickly will Customs refund any excess funds if it turns out the amount deposited exceeds the margin set by the ITC?
To see the comments which were filed in response to the Proposed Rule, see http://www.Regulations.gov and refer to Docket No. ITA-2011-0005. To see the changes to the ITA’s rules, see http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-10-03/pdf/2011-24666.pdf..