Coalition Commends Senate Finance Leadership for Commitment to Move Legislation to Enforce Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Orders

WASHINGTON, July 8, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Coalition to Enforce Antidumping & Countervailing Duty Orders (the "Coalition") thanks Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-UT) for their pledge to move legislation this year that will strengthen enforcement of antidumping and countervailing duty orders.  The Senators expressed this commitment yesterday in response to an amendment offered during a mock mark-up of the legislation implementing the Korea - U.S. Free Trade Agreement.  

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Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Charles Schumer (D-NY), and Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) proposed the creation of a process at U.S. Customs & Border Protection ("CBP") to ensure that allegations of illegal evasion of antidumping or countervailing duty orders are investigated.  The amendment, which reflected provisions set forth in S.1133 (The Enforcing Orders and Reducing Circumvention and Evasion (ENFORCE) Act of 2011), was withdrawn after Sens. Baucus and Hatch both promised to take up legislation this year to deal with the problem.

The ENFORCE Act was introduced in May by Sens. Wyden, Snowe, Schumer, Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Rob Portman (R-OH) following testimony at a Senate Finance Subcommittee hearing that highlighted widespread and brazen duty evasion by means such as transshipment through third countries and submission of fraudulent documentation to CBP.

"We applaud the commitment of Senators Baucus and Hatch to move legislation this year to address this important trade issue," said Karl G. Glassman, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Leggett & Platt, Incorporated, and spokesperson for the Coalition. "The country urgently needs meaningful legislation to make sure that these unscrupulous companies cannot continue to cheat American taxpayers out of the revenue that is supposed to be collected on imports, cheat American producers out of their right to compete on a level playing field, and cheat American workers out of jobs that they need to support their families and their communities."

The Coalition to Enforce Antidumping & Countervailing Duty Orders consists of the following companies and industry associations: M&B Metal Products (Leeds, Alabama), Vulcan Threaded Products (Pelham, Alabama), Leggett & Platt, Incorporated (Carthage, Missouri), Southern Shrimp Alliance (Tarpon Springs, Florida), Mid Continent Nail Corporation (Poplar Bluff, Missouri), American Spring Wire Company (Bedford Heights, Ohio), Insteel Industries (Mt. Airy, North Carolina), JMC Steel Group (Beachwood, Ohio), GEO Specialty Chemicals (Lafayette, Indiana), Seaman Paper Company of Massachusetts, Inc. (Otter River, Massachusetts), and SSW Holding Company (Elizabethtown, Kentucky). They are American producers that have been harmed by unfairly priced imports which are now subject to antidumping and/or countervailing duty orders.

SOURCE Coalition for Enforcement of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Orders