This article is taken from NGFA's July 14 newsletter.
NGFA and 18 other food and agriculture groups on July 10 submitted comments opposing amendments to antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) regulations proposed by the U.S. Department of Commerce in May.
“The proposed amendments to the AD/CVD regulations would jeopardize U.S. agriculture and food product manufacturing output and imperil the exports of these U.S. industries,” the comments stated, adding that the amendments would “do more harm than good to U.S. production, ultimately increasing the cost of American food production and food price inflation.”
The department issued proposed regulations on May 9 that “would drastically expand the substantive reach and economic impact of U.S. trade remedy laws,” the groups noted while outlining ways the proposed rule could potentially trigger retaliation against agricultural exports.
NGFA and other agriculture groups said Commerce’s proposed amendments to the AD/CVD regulations would:
• Jeopardize the supply of inputs critical to agriculture and food product manufacturers in the United States by increasing AD/CVD duties on imports and injecting new uncertainties into their business plans.
• Substantially raise the costs and risks associated with exporting to the United States, so countries with significant exports to the United States may unilaterally retaliate by imposing tariffs or other trade restrictions on U.S. imports.
• Threaten U.S. exports by prompting other countries to make similar changes to their AD/CVD rules and signal to U.S. trading partners that social values—including values only weakly related to market dynamics—can be infused into AD/CVD laws.
“This is a dangerous message for the United States to send to any of its trading partners, and especially to trading partners with policy priorities, property rights regimes, and notions of human rights that diverge from American ideals,” the groups noted.
Read the full comments here.