Office of The Chief Counsel
for Import Administration

Welcome
The Office of the Chief Counsel for Import Administration provides legal support to the International Trade Administration, specifically the Assistant Secretary for Import Administration, in connection with the administration of the laws regulating unfairly-traded imports into the United States, primarily the antidumping law (which deals with exports to the United States priced below their price in the home market or below their cost of production) and the countervailing duty law (which deals with exports to the United States from foreign industries that receive government subsidies). The office is headed by the Chief Counsel, who is assisted by the Deputy Chief Counsel. There are 6 section chiefs, 18 staff attorneys, often a law clerk, one paralegal, and three secretaries.

Office Description
The office's work may be divided into three general areas: administrative advice; litigation; and trade agreements.

Administrative Advice
The office concurs in all substantial administrative determinations under the antidumping and countervailing duty laws. This involves working closely with the Import Administration as administrative proceedings progress, in order to ensure that the ultimate decisions are defensible under U.S. law and our international obligations, consistent with prior practice, and do not have unacceptable implications for related negotiations.

Litigation
The office plays a critical role in defending antidumping and countervailing duty determinations from the variety of legal challenges to which they are now subject. Most often, this means working with the Department of Justice to defend actions in the Court of International Trade and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (approximately 500 such cases are now pending before these two courts). With increasing frequency, the office also works with the United States Trade Representative to defend antidumping and countervailing duty determinations against challenges before dispute settlement panels in the World Trade Organization. Finally, the office has sole litigating authority to defend antidumping and countervailing duty determinations before binational panels under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Trade Agreements
The office works closely with the Import Administration in the negotiation and implementation of a broad range of multilateral and bilateral agreements relating to government subsidization and private unfair pricing practices. The more general of these agreements include the WTO Antidumping Agreement and the WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, NAFTA, the GATT Civil Aircraft Code, and the OECD agreement limiting unfair practices in the shipbuilding sector. In addition, a variety of bilateral agreements have arisen from specific antidumping and countervailing duty cases. These have included agreements on uranium from Russia, Kazakstan, and Uzbekistan, steel from Russia, Ukraine, and China, semiconductors from Japan and Korea, lumber from Canada and Honey from the PRC.

The office also provides legal support in connection with proposed legislation or regulations affecting any of the statutes overseen by the Import Administration and in connection with administration of the Foreign-Trade Zones program, the Florence Agreement relating to duty free entry of scientific instruments, and the Insular Possessions watch program.

Staff attorneys work in close cooperation with client personnel. A staff attorney serves as one of the team members on a particular investigation or administrative review, along with one or more Import Administration staff analysts, providing whatever legal assistance is required by the team. If an issue arises which needs additional legal expertise, the appropriate section chief, the Deputy Chief Counsel, or the Chief Counsel will meet with the team, including with other senior managers and decision makers from the client's office.

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