WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley joined a bipartisan group of senators in urging the Obama Administration to fully utilize a trade enforcement tool enacted last year.
“Trade violators ought to be held accountable,” Grassley said. “The Obama Administration should use every tool Congress has provided to crack down on foreign companies or governments that don’t cooperate with a U.S. investigation. U.S. producers deserve trade enforcement and a chance to compete fairly.”
The letter Grassley signed presses the Commerce Department to apply adverse facts available (AFA) in trade cases in which a foreign company or government does not cooperate with Commerce’s investigation. AFA ensures the United States can use all the information and facts otherwise available during an investigation in which the other party is not cooperating. The Leveling the Playing Field Act enacted in June 2015 marked the most significant changes to trade remedy law since 2002, and the law specifically sought to restore strength to AFA and guard it from legal challenges that have left Commerce reluctant to employ the tool during investigations.
The Leveling the Playing Field Act has made it easier for workers and businesses to petition the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission when foreign producers cheat trade laws by selling goods in the U.S. below market price or receive illegal subsidies. It restored strength to antidumping and countervailing duty statutes. This will benefit the domestic steel industry, which has been especially hard-hit by illegal trade.
Grassley has weighed in with the Commerce Department on a domestic steel industry case about unfairly priced imports that the manufacturer said caused reduced operating hours at a facility in Camanche in Clinton County.
This week’s letter to the Commerce Department is available here.
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