American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition
February 7, 2007

Hon. Charles B. Rangel
Chairman
Committee on Ways and Means
U.S. House of Representatives
1102 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC  20515

Dear Chairman Rangel:

The American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (“AMTAC”) appreciates this opportunity to submit comments in response to the Advisory from the Committee on Ways and Means, dated January 31, 2007, requesting public input regarding what action, if any, the Committee should take with respect to the modification the Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) has proposed to its calculation of weighted average dumping margins in investigations.   

American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition’s mission is to preserve and create American manufacturing jobs through the establishment of trade policy and other measures necessary for the U.S. manufacturing sector to stabilize and grow.  AMTAC is a trade association representing companies from various domestic industrial sectors, such as the textile, apparel, furniture, wood products, chemical, plastics, and machine tool industries.  AMTAC members are mainly in the Northeast and Southeast, but several members are located in the Midwest and West. All AMTAC’s members are in industries greatly affected by international trade.  Employment in the U.S. manufacturing sector provides millions of American jobs, enables a diverse workforce and sustains communities and families in both urban and rural America. Manufacturing contributes billions of dollars to the nation’s gross domestic product on an annual basis and is vital to the armed forces and overall national security of the United States. AMTAC believes that effective enforcement of U.S. trade remedy laws is essential to preserving the U.S. manufacturing sector.

The Commerce Department’s proposed modification to our trade remedy laws could limit the effectiveness of the remedy for U.S. industries injured when foreign producers to dump goods in the U.S. market.  Commerce’s proposed change would abandon longstanding policy in antidumping investigations by eliminating the practice of “zeroing” in average to average comparisons in investigations.  This proposal would result in antidumping duty margins that fail to capture one hundred percent of dumping that foreign producers are engaged in, and thus would mean that domestic producers could not obtain adequate relief under our domestic trade laws.  The proposed change would be extremely harmful to domestic manufacturers, who would be forced to compete with dumped imports without recourse to dumping margins that fully reflect the extent of dumping in the U.S. market.

AMTAC urges the Committee to oppose the change proposed by Commerce.  Commerce should withdraw the proposed modification and pursue clarification of U.S. rights through negotiations at the WTO.  Alternatively, or in addition, the Committee should vote, pursuant to Section 123(g)(3) of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (19 U.S.C. § 3533(g)(3)), to communicate the Committee’s disagreement with the proposed modification.  AMTAC also urges the Committee to take all necessary steps to address erroneous and overreaching decisions of WTO dispute settlement panels and the Appellate Body that undermine U.S. trade remedy laws. 

As the United States government has recognized, the WTO’s decisions on “zeroing” have created obligations for the United States that are not found in the text of the WTO Agreements.  These decisions violated WTO rules by exceeding the authority of the dispute panels and the Appellate Body.  When such overreaching occurs, rather than comply with novel obligations that it never agreed to, the United States can and should reassert the balance of rights and obligations actually agreed to at the WTO through negotiations.  In addition, the United States should ensure that dispute settlement rules remedy the ongoing problem of overreaching by dispute settlement panels and the Appellate Body, particularly in the trade remedy area.   

Congress has identified WTO overreaching as a serious concern, pointing to the issue of “zeroing” in particular.  As more and more troubling decisions by WTO dispute settlement panels and the Appellate Body pile up, it simply makes no sense for Commerce to go ahead and implement a WTO decision that the Administration itself has recognized as “deeply flawed.”  It is time for the U.S. to step up and defend our trade remedy laws from further unfounded attacks from misguided WTO decisions.

AMTAC urges the Committee to vigorously oppose the change proposed by Commerce.   Congress should require Commerce to maintain its long-standing practice of capturing one hundred percent of dumping when calculating dumping margins in investigations, and the United States should find a solution that ensures U.S. rights are honored at the WTO. 

AMTAC appreciates the opportunity to provide input on this important issue, and looks forward to working with the Committee to ensure that U.S. trade remedy laws are preserved and strengthened for all of U.S. manufacturing.

Respectfully submitted,

Auggie Tantillo
AMTAC Executive Director