When the Department of Commerce finds that imported merchandise was sold in the United States at an unfairly low or subsidized price, to level the playing field for U.S. companies injured by these unfair trade practices, CBP is responsible for collecting the Antidumping and Countervailing Duties (AD/CVD) in a timely manner.

The goal of this AD/CVD Priority Trade Issue is to detect and deter circumvention of the AD/CVD law, to liquidate final duties timely and accurately, while at the same time facilitating legitimate trade.

Anti-dumping (AD) occurs when a foreign producer or exporter sells a product in the United States at a price that is below “normal value.” Normal value may be the price at which the foreign producer sells the merchandise in its own domestic market or a third-country market, or may be a constructed value based on its production costs plus an amount for profit. AD cases are company specific; the duty is calculated to bridge the gap back to a fair market value. 

This entails valuing the non-market economy producer’s factors of production using prices or costs from one or more surrogate market economy countries considered to:

• Level of economic development comparable to that of the non-market economy country of the producer and
• A significant producer of comparable merchandise.

Countervailing duties (CVD) cases are established when a foreign government provides assistance and subsidies, such as tax breaks to manufacturers that export goods to the United States enabling the manufacturers to sale the goods cheaper than domestic manufacturers. CVD cases are country specific, and the duties are calculated to duplicate the value of the subsidy.

When either of these occurs, petitions are filed by U.S. manufacturers or businesses with the International Trade Commission (ITC). If the ITC finds evidence of injury to the U.S. industry, the Department of Commerce (DOC) does an investigation. If the results are positive, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) withholds liquidation of entries and collects AD/CVD duties. The entries are not liquidated until the DOC instructs CBP headquarters to do so.