Foreign Steel Imports & New Level the Playing Field Law

On Monday, President Obama signed into law the bill that contains the “Level the Playing Field” act. This is the bill that made some potentially significant changes to trade laws, including changing the criteria for “material injury” findings and increasing penalties for foreign respondents that do not provide information requested by the Commerce Department.

This provision closes loopholes and codifies important Department of Commerce practices, providing support to domestic industry users of U.S. trade remedy laws— such as the steel and steel products, paper, and chemicals industries, as well as labor and trade unions. Level the Playing Field will enhance the Department of Commerce’s ability to get the information it needs in antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings, including from non-cooperative foreign companies and governments. It will also enhance the International Trade Commission’s ability to assess injury caused to American manufacturers and their workers by unfairly traded imports. Other provisions of the legislation further support the effective enforcement of our antidumping and countervailing duty laws by codifying existing Department of Commerce practices that help stop unfair pricing by foreign exporters or subsidization by their governments.