Congressman Phil English (R-PA) has announced that when Congress returns from recess next Tuesday he will introduce the "Trade Law Reform Act of 2006", legislation intended as a "comprehensive proposal to reform and strengthen key U.S. trade remedy laws." The following is a summary of the key provisions of the Trade Law Reform Act of 2006.
Changes to Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Laws- Ensure effective application of the captive production provisions;
- Ensure that the International Trade Commission (ITC) can address cases in which price suppression, rather than increases in volume, is the key issue;
- Require that the ITC evaluate whether an industry is in a vulnerable condition for reasons including prior waves of unfairly traded imports;
- Clarify that the ITC need not determine the significance of imports relative to other economic factors when determining causation of material injury;
- Improve and clarify the rules which prevent circumvention of AD/CVD orders;
- Correct deficiencies in U.S. law to ensure producers of perishable agriculture products are able to obtain adequate AD/CVD relief;
- Clarify how the Department of Commerce will measure the amount of a subsidy in certain instances;
- Ensure that the Department of Commerce deducts AD and CVD duties from the import price in calculating the dumping margin for imports.
- Provide a process for expedited remedy in instances where persistent dumping is present;
- Replace the current bonds that are used by new shippers in antidumping cases with cash deposits for three years;
- Clarify how the Department of Commerce calculates the freight costs for inputs in nonmarket economies; and
- Requires that any Department of Commerce action to graduate foreign countries to market economy status receives Congressional approval prior to taking effect.
Changes to Safeguard Law (also known as the "Escape Clause")
- Replace the current standard for demonstrating a causal link between imports and serious injury to the U.S. industry with a standard comporting with that in the WTO;
- Expand the availability of early and meaningful provisional relief;
- Create for the first time a captive production provision for section 201;
- Restructure the ITC's causation analysis to ensure that import surges can be addressed more quickly and effectively;
- Add WTO-based factors to the injury analysis conducted by the ITC; and
- Make it more difficult for the President to deny relief when the ITC has recommended it.
Creation of Congressional Advisory Commission
The bill proposes to establish a Congressional Advisory Commission (CAC) to review the operation of the WTO Dispute Settlement system. The CAC would be comprised of five former or current federal judges chosen without regard for political affiliation that would be responsible for reviewing WTO panel and appellate body decisions that are adverse to the U.S. Should the CAC find the WTO acted improperly in three cases, the United States Trade Representative would be required to submit to Congress an action plan on proposals to reform the dispute settlement system to ensure it stays within the confines of its mandate.
Other Changes to U.S. Trade Laws: - Permit the participation of domestic companies or interested parties in WTO panel proceedings;
- Expand and make permanent the current Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis System (SIMA); and
- Strengthen Principal Trade Negotiating Objectives and Consultation with Congress.
Update: The "Trade Law Reform Act of 2006" has been designated as H.R. 5529.
