§1677i Downstream Product Monitoring

Summary

A U.S. producer can ask the trade agency to watch a finished product if they think duties on a foreign-made component pushed makers to export more of that finished product to the United States. The request must name the downstream product, the component used in it, and explain why diversion is likely. The agency has 14 days to decide whether imports of the downstream product are likely to rise because of such diversion and whether one of three risk tests is met (the component is already monitored under a bilateral deal, related goods from the same country have faced many past investigations or orders, or the same maker has faced at least 2 past investigations or orders). If both decisions are yes, the agency publishes a notice and sends the petition and its findings to the U.S. International Trade Commission. Those 14‑day decisions cannot be appealed in court. If the Commission gets the case, it starts watching trade in the downstream product right away. If imports of that product go up by 5 percent or more in any quarter versus the prior quarter, the Commission will study the rise in the context of the whole industry. The Commission sends public quarterly reports to the agency. The agency uses those reports to decide whether to open an antidumping or countervailing investigation, or to ask the Commission to stop monitoring if imports aren’t increasing and diversion is unlikely. Definitions (one line each): Component part: an imported article that in the 5 years before the petition had orders or agreements showing at least a 15 percent ad valorem duty/subsidy and that is routinely used as a major part of a downstream product. Downstream product: any manufactured item imported into the United States that contains the component part.