House and Senate negotiators on the Agriculture appropriations bill approved a trade policy amendment sponsored
by Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) that will create a financial windfall for companies and lawyers who successfully sue foreign firms accused of
dumping products into the US. Under this provision, the federal government would hand over the duties imposed on foreign companies to the
corporations that initiated the trade case. Since the proceeds from these cases normally go into the US Treasury, the change would dramatically
boost the incentives for filing antidumping and countervailing duty cases.
Both the House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Archer (R-TX) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman William Roth (R-DE) fought against
the amendment. "The proposal is bad trade policy," they stated. The Clinton Administration also expressed concerns, and called on the Congress
to override the subsidy provision. Repeal could take the form of another amendment in an outstanding appropriations bill or legislation specifically
overriding the provision.
While there are some efforts being undertaken to repeal the amendment during the upcoming Lame Duck session of Congress, including a letter to
Congressional leaders from consuming industries requesting their assistance, it will likely not be addressed until the next congressional session.
International trade experts have noted that the Byrd amendment violates WTO rules by creating illegal "subsidies." (The WTO defines a subsidy as
"a government payment to a specific enterprise or industry.") Additionally, this amendment would likely lead to confrontation with our trading partners,
many of whom have already lodged complaints, including European diplomats.
The end result would be more dumping and countervailing duty cases, and more pressure on the Commerce Department to find duty margins. It would also
discourage suspension agreements because if an investigation were suspended, no duties would be collected.
This amendment is virtually identical to a bill introduced earlier this year by Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH) that would have provided direct assistance
to industries harmed by unfairly traded imports by ensuring they receive a share of the duties collected from dumped and subsidized imports.
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