EC "Byrd Amendment" Sanctions on U.S. Products Expected to Remain in Place Until Disbursements Cease

In February 2006, the President signed into law S. 1932 which, among other things, repealed the Byrd Amendment. However, S. 1932 provided that all duties on entries of goods made and filed before October 1, 2007, that would, but for this repeal, be distributed under section 754 of the Tariff Act of 1930, shall be distributed as if section 754 had not been repealed. (See ITT's Online Archives or 02/10/06 news, 06021005, for BP summary of the repeal.)

EC Not Expected to Lift Sanctions Until Byrd Amendment Disbursements Cease

European Union sources explain that the EC's policy is to wait until all disbursement associated with the Byrd Amendment has ceased before considering lifting the sanctions. This means that the sanctions could remain in place for a number of years after October 2007.

EC Currently Imposes Sanctions on U.S.-Origin Products Covered by 26 CN Codes

Effective May 1, 2006, the EC added the following eight Combined Nomenclature (CN) codes to the list of codes subject to "Byrd Amendment" 15% additional duties:

In addition to the 8 CN codes added in May 2006, the following CN codes were already subject to, and continue to be subject to, "Byrd Amendment" 15% additional duties:

(See ITT's Online Archives or 05/05/06 news, 06050505, for BP summary of the application of Byrd Amendment sanctions on the above-described 8 additional CNs.)

CBP to Withhold FY 2006 Byrd Amendment Distribution on Canadian or Mexican Goods

In June 2006, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a notice of intent to distribute assessed antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duties for Fiscal Year (FY) 2006. However, CBP has stated that consistent with certain Court of International Trade (CIT) decisions, it will be withholding distributions under the Byrd Amendment that derive from AD and CV duties assessed on goods from Canada or Mexico.

CBP has stated that FY2006 Byrd Amendment distributions that derive from AD or CV duties on other than Canadian or Mexican goods are not affected. (See ITT's Online Archives or 10/12/06 news, 06101225, for BP summary.)

EU News Release on Additional Byrd Amendment Sanctions (No. 30/6, 05/01/06) available at http://www.eurunion.org/News/press/2006/20060030.htm

EU Byrd Amendment Information available at http://www.eurunion.org/newsweb/HotTopics.htm (approximately half-way down the Web page)

BP Notes

In addition to the EC, Canada, Japan, and Mexico also imposed additional duties on certain U.S.-originating products in 2005 as a result of the Byrd Amendment. However, the current status of these countries' additional duties is not known.

The Canadian government has previously explained that the WTO has granted retaliation authorization to Canada, the EU, Brazil, Chile, India, Japan, Korea, and Mexico. The Canadian government has also stated that although Thailand and Indonesia participated in the WTO Byrd Amendment dispute, these two countries did not request retaliation rights. (See ITT's Online Archives or 09/02/04 news, 04090205, for BP summary of the WTO's authorization for various countries/economies to impose retaliatory measures for the Byrd Amendment.)

(The Byrd Amendment had required that the revenues from AD and CV duties assessed on or after October 1, 2000 be distributed on an annual basis to the affected domestic producers (i.e. currently operating producers (including worker representatives) that were either petitioners for the AD/CV duty order in question or interested parties in support of the petition) for specified qualifying expenditures (e.g. manufacturing facilities, research and development, personnel training). See ITT's Online Archives or 10/19/00 news, 00101837, for BP summary.)