Kern County Times

WASHINGTON – On June 8, Congressman David G. Valadao (CA-22) and Congressman Jimmy Panetta (CA-19) introduced the China Trade Cheating Restitution Act. This bipartisan, bicameral legislation ensures domestic garlic, honey, and crawfish producers are paid the duties collected by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP) for China’s unfair trading practices meant to drive U.S. producers out of the market. The CBP still owes garlic producers, 90% of which is grown in California, an additional $10.5 million in retroactive duties.

“China’s practice of dumping garlic into the U.S. has unfairly distorted our markets and inflicted serious harm on producers here in the Central Valley,” said Congressman Valadao. “The federal government has already collected dumping duties from these imports, but producers have still not been paid the money they are owed from China’s unfair trade practices. This bipartisan legislation ensures producers receive the payments they are entitled to from the CBP and gives our farmers a fair chance to compete.”

“While the federal government has collected dumping duties on garlic imports from China, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency has not paid the full restitution to impacted producers,” said Congressman Panetta.  “This bipartisan legislation would ensure that the federal government takes action to correct these failures, by paying all collected duties and interest to those in our agricultural sector who deserve it. Chinese importers dumping garlic into our market have caused serious harm to Californian producers.  The federal government has a responsibility to not only prevent these harmful trade practices but ensure our producers are taken care of.”

Background:

For years, Chinese producers have purposely exported agricultural products below the cost of production to drive out U.S. producers – a practice commonly referred to as dumping. In 2000, Congress passed the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act (CDSOA), which instructed CBP to pay all collected anti-dumping duties and accrued interest to the U.S. producers that were impacted by dumped imports. Due to a range of delays, many producers have still not seen any of this accrued delinquency interest on the anti-dumping duties that CBP collected. This bill ensures the CBP pays out the remaining anti-dumping duties to producers who have not been paid between 2000-2014. 

Original source can be found here.