In February of this year, the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 became law. Title IV of this law is the Prevention of Evasion of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Orders, or the Enforce and Protect Act of 2015 for short.
The Enforce and Protect Act of 2015 and the regulations issued by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) set out procedures for interested parties to file an allegation with CBP when they suspect another party of evading antidumping or countervailing duties. These reports help CBP to identify potential evaders while allowing domestic producers of a product to be more involved in the enforcement proceedings.
CBP established a new investigatory group called the Trade Remedy Law Enforcement Directorate within the Office of Trade, or TRLED. When a party files an allegation, CBP will review entries filed up to one year prior to the date of the allegation. At its discretion, however, CBP may broaden this scope and review other entries as well. CBP’s discretion is a theme in these new regulations. The regulations are not a limitation on CBP at all. CBP may continue to utilize other avenues to investigate duty evasion as it sees fit.