Glossary
Administrative Protective Order (APO)
An order issued in the course of a Commission countervailing duty, antidumping duty, safeguard, or section 337 investigation or related proceeding under which the Commission provides limited disclosure of certain nonpublic information to authorized representatives of interested parties to the investigation for use in making submissions to the Commission in the course of the investigation. In section 337 investigations the orders are issued by the administrative law judge; in all other investigations the orders are issued by the Secretary to the Commission. By signing the order, the authorized representative agrees to abide by the terms of the order in the use of business proprietary information (BPI) and confidential business information (CBI) obtained under the order and in the return or destruction of BPI and CBI received under the order.
For more information, please visit the Administrative Protective Order portion of this web site.
Advisory Opinion
Upon request of any person, the Commission may, upon such investigation as it deems necessary, issue an advisory opinion as to whether the person's proposed course of action or conduct would violate a Commission exclusion order, cease and desist order, or consent order in the context of an investigation under section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930. The Commission will consider whether the issuance of such an advisory opinion would facilitate the enforcement of section 337, would be in the public interest, and would benefit consumers and competitive conditions in the United States, and whether the person has a compelling business need for the advice and has framed his request as fully and accurately as possible.
Andean Trade Preference Act - ATPA
The Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) (19 U.S.C. 3201 et seq.) authorizes the President to proclaim duty-free treatment for eligible articles from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru in order to help these countries fight drug production and trafficking by expanding their economic alternatives. Section 206 of ATPA (19 U.S.C. 3204) requires the Commission to submit to Congress and the President biennial reports regarding the economic impact of the act on U.S. industries and consumers, and, in conjunction with other agencies, the effectiveness of the act in promoting drug-related crop eradication and crop substitution efforts of the beneficiary countries.
For Industry and Economic Analysis publications on the Western Hemisphere, please visit: www.usitc.gov/research_and_analysis/332_commission_publication.htm and select Western Hemisphere as the topic.
Antidumping Investigation
Investigations conducted by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the USITC under the U.S. antidumping law, Title VII of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. § 1673 et seq.), almost always on the basis of a petition filed with Commerce and the USITC on behalf of a domestic industry. If Commerce determines that the subject goods are being sold in the United States at less than fair value (dumped), and the Commission determines that a U.S. industry is materially injured or threatened with material injury or that the establishment of any industry is materially retarded by reason of such sales at less than fair value, Commerce will issue an antidumping duty order that imposes an antidumping duty on such imports in an amount equal to the margin of dumping.
For more information about Commerce's role, see http://trade.gov/ia/index.asp. For more information about the USITC's role, see this site's Import Injury section; for information about pending investigations, see active AD-CVD cases; for a list of completed investigations, see completed AD-CVD cases and select complete under the Status menu.
Assessments of the Likely Impact of a Trade Agreement
The Commission makes such assessments at the request of the President under section 2104(f) of the Trade Act of 2002 (19 U.S.C. §3804(f)). Section 2104(f) requires the Commission, following receipt of a request, to assess the likely impact of a trade agreement on the U.S. economy as a whole and on specific industry sectors and to submit its report to Congress and the President. Commission investigations under this section are sometimes referred to as 90-90 investigations because the President must request a Commission report at least 90 days before entering into a trade agreement and the Commission must submit its report no later than 90 days after the President enters into the agreement.