[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 433 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 433

To establish a benefit calculation methodology with respect to currency 
 undervaluation for purposes of countervailing duty investigations and 
                    reviews, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           February 10, 2015

  Mr. Sessions (for himself, Mr. Brown, Mr. Graham, Mr. Schumer, Mr. 
   Burr, Ms. Stabenow, Ms. Collins, Mr. Casey, Mr. Donnelly, and Mr. 
   Portman) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
                  referred to the Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To establish a benefit calculation methodology with respect to currency 
 undervaluation for purposes of countervailing duty investigations and 
                    reviews, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Currency Undervaluation 
Investigation Act''.

SEC. 2. INVESTIGATION OR REVIEW OF CURRENCY UNDERVALUATION UNDER 
              COUNTERVAILING DUTY LAW.

    Subsection (c) of section 702 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 
1671a(c)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
            ``(6) Currency undervaluation.--For purposes of a 
        countervailing duty investigation under this subtitle in which 
        the determinations under clauses (i) and (ii) of paragraph 
        (1)(A) are affirmative, or a review under subtitle C with 
        respect to a countervailing duty order, the administering 
        authority shall initiate an investigation to determine whether 
        currency undervaluation by the government of a country or any 
        public entity within the territory of a country is providing, 
        directly or indirectly, a countervailable subsidy, if--
                    ``(A) a petition filed by an interested party 
                (described in subparagraph (C), (D), (E), (F), or (G) 
                of section 771(9)) alleges the elements necessary for 
                the imposition of the duty imposed by section 701(a); 
                and
                    ``(B) the petition is accompanied by information 
                reasonably available to the petitioner supporting those 
                allegations.''.

SEC. 3. BENEFIT CALCULATION METHODOLOGY WITH RESPECT TO CURRENCY 
              UNDERVALUATION.

    Section 771 of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1677) is amended 
by adding at the end the following:
            ``(37) Currency undervaluation benefit.--
                    ``(A) Currency undervaluation benefit.--For 
                purposes of a countervailing duty investigation under 
                subtitle A, or a review under subtitle C with respect 
                to a countervailing duty order, the following shall 
                apply:
                            ``(i) In general.--If the administering 
                        authority determines to investigate whether 
                        currency undervaluation provides a 
                        countervailable subsidy, the administering 
                        authority shall determine whether there is a 
                        benefit to the recipient of that subsidy and 
                        measure such benefit by comparing the simple 
                        average of the real exchange rates derived from 
                        application of the macroeconomic-balance 
                        approach and the equilibrium-real-exchange-rate 
                        approach to the official daily exchange rate 
                        identified by the administering authority.
                            ``(ii) Reliance on data.--In making the 
                        determination under clause (i), the 
                        administering authority shall rely upon data 
                        that are publicly available, reliable, and 
                        compiled and maintained by the International 
                        Monetary Fund or the World Bank, or other 
                        international organizations or national 
                        governments if data from the International 
                        Monetary Fund or World Bank are not available.
                    ``(B) Definitions.--In this paragraph:
                            ``(i) Macroeconomic-balance approach.--The 
                        term `macroeconomic-balance approach' means a 
                        methodology under which the level of 
                        undervaluation of the real effective exchange 
                        rate of the currency of the exporting country 
                        is defined as the change in the real effective 
                        exchange rate needed to achieve equilibrium in 
                        the balance of payments of the exporting 
                        country, as such methodology is described in 
                        the guidelines of the International Monetary 
                        Fund's Consultative Group on Exchange Rate 
                        Issues, if available.
                            ``(ii) Equilibrium-real-exchange-rate 
                        approach.--The term `equilibrium-real-exchange-
                        rate approach' means a methodology under which 
                        the level of undervaluation of the real 
                        effective exchange rate of the currency of the 
                        exporting country is defined as the difference 
                        between the observed real effective exchange 
                        rate and the real effective exchange rate, as 
                        such methodology is described in the guidelines 
                        of the International Monetary Fund's 
                        Consultative Group on Exchange Rate Issues, if 
                        available.
                            ``(iii) Real exchange rates.--The term 
                        `real exchange rates' means the bilateral 
                        exchange rates derived from converting the 
                        trade-weighted multilateral exchange rates 
                        yielded by the macroeconomic-balance approach 
                        and the equilibrium-real-exchange-rate approach 
                        into real bilateral terms.''.

SEC. 4. MODIFICATION OF DEFINITION OF SPECIFICITY WITH RESPECT TO 
              EXPORT SUBSIDY.

    Section 771(5A)(B) of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 
1677(5A)(B)) is amended by adding at the end the following new 
sentence: ``The fact that a subsidy may also be provided in 
circumstances that do not involve export shall not, for that reason 
alone, mean that the subsidy cannot be considered contingent upon 
export performance.''.

SEC. 5. APPLICATION TO CANADA AND MEXICO.

    Pursuant to article 1902 of the North American Free Trade Agreement 
and section 408 of the North American Free Trade Agreement 
Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 3438), the amendments made by this Act 
shall apply with respect to goods from Canada and Mexico.

SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The amendments made by this Act apply to countervailing duty 
investigations initiated under subtitle A of title VII of the Tariff 
Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1671 et seq.) and reviews initiated under 
subtitle C of title VII of such Act (19 U.S.C. 1675 et seq.)--
            (1) before the date of the enactment of this Act, if the 
        investigation or review is pending a final determination as of 
        such date of enactment; and
            (2) on or after such date of enactment.
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