Issue 427, January 30, 2003
The International Trade Administration (ITA) is focusing attention on the procedures that the ITC would follow when it has reason to believe that, in the course of an antidumping (AD) or countervailing (CV) duty proceeding, a party has fraudulently certified and/or submitted false statements.

The Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, states that any person who provides information or certificates to the ITA during an AD or CV duty proceeding is responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the information, including the information made on the submission of a Certificate of Reimbursement.

The ITA regulations have specific content requirements for these certifications and ITA currently refers situations of possible fraud regarding these certifications to the Department of Commerce?s Office of Inspector General (OIG) or to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for appropriate disposition. However, the ITA itself does not have procedures allowing it to investigate on its own or to impose sanctions against persons who certify and submit false statements to ITA during AD or CV duty proceedings.

The ITA is currently collecting information from interested members of the general public, in order to assist the ITA in determining whether to issue regulations regarding false statements and what those regulations should be.

The ITA is questioning whether or not he current certification requirements are enough to protect the integrity of ITA's administrative processes, what should be the definition "fraud" or "false statements", who should be subject to these regulations (foreign and domestic companies attorneys and other professionals appearing before the agency) and what type of sanctions should be imposed.

In view of this increased concern regarding the ITA's procedures it would be in the best interest of each company that is involved with the importation of goods that fall under antidumping or countervailing duty cases to review their own procedures. Of critical importance is a review of the company procedure when a Certificate of Reimbursement is submitted to Customs. The failure to verify the accuracy of the information may result in substantial fines and/or penalties.

Our contributing writer, Karl Krueger is the Technical Advisor for DHL Danzas Air & Ocean in Port Huron, Michigan. If you have any questions or require further information, please contact Mr. Krueger at karl.Krueger@dhl.com or 810 987-0567.

Please note that due to the complex nature of the subject matter, DHL Danzas Air & Ocean cannot be responsible for actions taken by the reader in reliance on the information contained herein without prior consultation with DHL Danzas Air & Ocean.