IV 111th CONGRESS 2d Session H. RES. 1681 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES September 29, 2010 Mr. Blunt (for himself, Mr. Bachus, Mrs. Emerson, Mr. Graves of Missouri, Mr. Akin, and Mr. Luetkemeyer) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means RESOLUTION Supporting effective enforcement of United States trade laws, including antidumping and countervailing duty orders and particularly with regard to transshipment, in order to protect United States revenue and consumers and remedy harm to impacted United States companies and industries and American workers.

Whereas United States companies and industries, and American workers, are the most competitive and productive in the world; Whereas unfairly traded imports can injure United States companies and industries by reducing their ability to innovate, compete, and invest in their operations and can injure American workers by suppressing wages and contributing to unemployment and underemployment; Whereas unfairly traded imports can cost American manufacturing jobs and may undermine public support for economically beneficial trade policies; Whereas the Department of Commerce and the United States International Trade Commission can investigate unfairly traded imports and impose special duties, called antidumping and countervailing duties, to remedy harm to United States companies and industries injured by unfairly traded imports; Whereas U.S. Customs and Border Protection collects such special duties and enforces our trade laws, including antidumping and countervailing duty orders; Whereas in recent years some foreign exporters and United States importers have used numerous fraudulent schemes to deliberately evade lawfully owed special duties imposed on unfairly traded imports; Whereas such schemes include the use of falsified shipping documents, misidentification of merchandise when it is imported into the United States, and shipment of merchandise through third countries that are then wrongly identified as the origin of the goods, a process commonly known as transshipment; Whereas evasion of lawfully owed duties on imported goods is illegal; Whereas the United States Government Accountability Office has found that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been unable to collect hundreds of millions of dollars of special duties and the noncollection of those duties means that the United States Government has not fully remedied the unfair trade practices and has lost out on a substantial amount of revenue; Whereas illegal evasion of lawfully owed duties prevents United States companies and industries and American workers from fully recovering from injury caused by unfairly traded imports; Whereas illegal use of false shipping documents, false claims about the country of origin, and false declarations at the time of importation can raise important safety issues with imported consumer products; Whereas pursuant to section 592 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1592), U.S. Customs and Border Protection has the authority, power, and responsibility to investigate and penalize violations of United States customs and trade laws, including the requirement that importers accurately identify goods that are subject to special duties imposed by the Department of Commerce; Whereas pursuant to section 781 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1677j), the Department of Commerce has the authority, power, and responsibility to investigate circumvention of its antidumping or countervailing duty orders, and to order the imposition of special duties on products from any country that circumvents such orders; Whereas the Department of Commerce has the inherent authority to act to safeguard the integrity of its administrative processes, including the administration and enforcement of antidumping and countervailing duty orders; and Whereas it is only through aggressive and effective enforcement of United States trade laws that such illegal activity can be stopped: Now, therefore, be it

That the House of Representatives— (1)recognizes the critical roles played by the Department of Commerce and U.S. Customs and Border Protection in administering and enforcing United States trade laws, including antidumping and countervailing duty orders; (2)supports the aggressive and effective enforcement of United States trade laws, including antidumping and countervailing duty orders and particularly with regard to the process commonly known as transshipment, in order to protect United States revenue and consumers and remedy harm to impacted United States companies and industries and American workers; and (3)encourages international trading partners of the United States to take prompt action to ensure that foreign companies exporting to the United States respect and abide by all requirements of United States trade laws, including antidumping and countervailing duty orders.