Circumvention Video Transcript

Antidumping and Countervailing duties, or AD/CVD duties, are designed to provide relief to U.S. domestic industries when they are facing unfair foreign competition.AD/CVD duties work by bridging the gap between the unfairly priced or subsidized imports that are sold in the US market applying duties at the border. These duties help American companies remain competitive by maintaining a level playing field. However, sometimes, importers and foreign entities try to avoid these duties.

One of the ways that they do this is through “circumvention” and it risks undermining the benefits that AD/CVD duties provide. Although it can take a few different forms, circumvention often involves a company skirting duties by either completing some of the product in a third-party country, or by modifying the product so it no longer fits the product description, as detailed in the “scope.”

Take, for example, a product like pencils. If an AD/CVD order is in place on pencils imported from Country A, then imports of these pencils will be subject to duties at the border. In an effort to avoid these duties, Country A begins producing pencils without erasers, and then sends them to Country B. Once in Country B, an eraser is added before being sent to the United States, as if they were from Country B originally. These pencils now undermine the effectiveness of AD/CVD duties, undermine the rules, and threaten the competitiveness of American companies. When this happens, American companies can petition commerce to examine whether circumvention is occurring.

If commerce finds circumvention is occurring, the products “circumventing” the rules would then be subject to AD/CVD duties. For example, the pencils from Country B will receive duties at the same rates as pencils from Country A, thus maintaining a level playing field for the domestic industry.

With a fair market, American companies continue to compete fairly, invest and grow in their business and maintain and create more jobs.

Global Business Navigator Chatbot ^Beta

Welcome to the Global Business Navigator, an artificial intelligence (AI) Chatbot from the International Trade Administration (ITA). This tool, currently in beta version testing, is designed to provide general information on the exporting process and the resources available to assist new and experienced U.S. exporters. The Chatbot, developed using Microsoft’s Azure AI services, is trained on ITA’s export-related content and aims to quickly get users the information they need. The Chatbot is intended to make the benefits of exporting more accessible by understanding non-expert language, idiomatic expressions, and foreign languages.

Limitations

As a beta product, the Chatbot is currently being tested and its responses may occasionally produce inaccurate or incomplete information. The Chatbot is trained to decline out of scope or inappropriate requests. The Chatbot’s knowledge is limited to the public information on the Export Solutions web pages of Trade.gov, which covers a wide range of topics on exporting. While it cannot provide responses specific to a company’s product or a specific foreign market, its reference pages will guide you to other relevant government resources and market research. Always double-check the Chatbot’s responses using the provided references or by visiting the Export Solutions web pages on Trade.gov. Do not use its responses as legal or professional advice. Inaccurate advice from the Chatbot would not be a defense to violating any export rules or regulations.

Privacy

The Chatbot does not collect information about users and does not use the contents of users’ chat history to learn new information. All feedback is anonymous. Please do not enter personally identifiable information (PII), sensitive, or proprietary information into the Chatbot. Your conversations will not be connected to other interactions or accounts with ITA. Conversations with the Chatbot may be reviewed to help ITA improve the tool and address harmful, illegal, or otherwise inappropriate questions.

Translation

The Chatbot supports a wide range of languages. Because the Chatbot is trained in English and responses are translated, you should verify the translation. For example, the Chatbot may have difficulty with acronyms, abbreviations, and nuances in a language other than English.

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Circumvention Video Transcript