By Jim Roberts, VP of Compliance
EAPA is the Enforce and Protect Act, is Title IV, Section 421 of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015.
Of what importance is this to you, the importer? If you are considering importing goods that you sourced at an unbelievably low selling price, you will want to ensure that your seller, exporter, producer or manufacturer is not “dumping” their products on the United States market.
What is dumping? It is when a foreign entity sells foreign produced/manufactured goods in the United States at a less than fair value. Although low selling prices to prospective U.S. importers are commercially attractive, they can have a severe and destructive impact on U.S. producers and manufacturers.
According to CBP, the EAPA is an enforcement tool to help level the playing field for U.S. producers and manufacturers, by stopping foreign exporters from circumventing laws designed to stop the practice “dumping” foreign made goods into the U.S. market. This should serve as a warning for importers to be vigilant against illegal anti-dumping schemes.
The EAPA establishes formal procedures for submitting and investigating antidumping or countervailing allegations of evasion against U.S.importers. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has responsibility for tracking and reporting allegations of evasion from initial receipt, vetting and enforcement actions, to final disposition of an investigation.
If you are an importer, be aware that enforcement of regulatory compliance with anti-dumping laws has additional muscle.
If you need help sorting through the anti-dumping/countervailing duty (AD/CVD) regulations and assisting you to determine whether or not your imports are included in the “scope of the rulings” of AD/CVD cases, let the experts at J. M. RODGERS Co. Inc. go to work for you.
If you are a U.S. producer or manufacture and have been injured by this illegal practice, you now have access to a formal process to initiate an investigation into alleged practices that are harmful to your business.
