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Import Duties: Assessment of Duties on Unfairly Priced Imports Not Reviewed

GGD-89-124 Published: Sep 29, 1989. Publicly Released: Oct 30, 1989.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Customs Service's and Commerce Department's administration of antidumping and countervailing duty assessment procedures, focusing on: (1) whether Commerce is effectively using Customs duty estimates to assess the established amounts; and (2) Customs' reporting accuracy and the content of the Commerce-established duties.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of the Treasury To enhance the administration of antidumping duty and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) laws, the Secretary of the Treasury should direct the Commissioner of Customs to ensure that accurate reports are provided to Commerce. In doing so, Customs should implement existing plans, such as instituting computerized control checks, and test the reports' accuracy after these changes to determine whether further improvements are needed.
Closed – Implemented
Customs and Commerce officials stated programming problems affecting the accuracy of AD/CVD transactions have been corrected and semiannual reports are provided to Commerce.
Department of the Treasury To enhance the administration of antidumping duty and countervailing duty laws, the Secretaries of Commerce and the Treasury should designate a team from their agencies to determine the feasibility of collecting additional data needed to review antidumping and countervailing duty settlements.
Closed – Implemented
The precise recommendation has been achieved and the team determined that information on final settlement amounts by commodity should be collected.
Department of Commerce To enhance the administration of antidumping duty and countervailing duty laws, the Secretaries of Commerce and the Treasury should designate a team from their agencies to determine the feasibility of collecting additional data needed to review antidumping and countervailing duty settlements.
Closed – Implemented
The precise recommendation has been achieved and the team determined that information on final settlement amounts by commodity should be collected.
Department of Commerce To enhance the administration of antidumping duty and countervailing duty laws, the Secretary of Commerce should establish procedures for using Customs' reports, to the extent possible, to ensure that the established amount of estimated antidumping and countervailing duties are assessed on individual entries.
Closed – Implemented
A team of Commerce and Customs staff has established procedures for using Customs' reports on AD/CVD collections to ensure that established amounts of duties have been assessed on individual entries. Procedures to be followed include checks on the accuracy of collections reported.

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Topics

Customs administrationData collectionImport restrictionInteragency relationsInternational trade regulationMechanizationReporting requirementsTariffsAgricultural commoditiesData errors