Trade Remedies: Antidumping and Countervailing Duties

We draw on the capabilities of our lawyers and non-lawyer professionals in our Washington, D.C., Brussels, London, New York, and California offices to provide full-spectrum legal guidance to clients wherever and whenever trade disputes arise. Among recent achievements, we have obtained successful results for clients in Europe, Asia, and North and South America, including more than 200 antidumping cases in 12 jurisdictions, and have provided technical antidumping and countervailing/anti-subsidy advice to six national governments.

In the United States, our lawyers advise domestic and foreign companies on the operation and application of the full range of U.S. trade relief laws. We have assisted clients operating in the steel, aluminum, metal and raw material, tire, chemical, machinery, agricultural, and consumer product arenas. We represent clients in proceedings before the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), the Trade Policy Staff Committee, the U.S. Court of International Trade, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, including the following:

• Proceedings arising under U.S. antidumping laws (concerning imported goods sold at "less than fair value")
• Proceedings arising under countervailing duty laws (concerning sales of imported goods that benefit from unlawful government subsidies or other trade benefits)
• Proceedings under Section 201 (escape clause) and Section 406
• Proceedings under Section 232 (impact of importation on national security)
• Evaluation and presentation of material injury and threat of material injury issues
• Calculation and legal analysis of dumping calculation methodology in both market economy and non-market economy cases
• Scope, like product, and circumvention
• Policy issues presented in safeguard and other proceedings

Over the past several years, our lawyers have been involved in approximately half of the anti-dumping cases initiated by the European Commission. We represent interested parties such as complaining EU industries, non-European exporters, EU importers, and end users of merchandise or goods in the following areas:

• Preparing and filing EU anti-dumping complaints against foreign merchandise and actively engaging the key decisionmakers to ensure the best results.
• Representing non-European exporters in sample inclusion requests, the filing of questionnaire responses, on-the-spot verification processes, and dumping margin calculations.
• Drafting and filing Market Economy Status (MES) submissions to prove the existence of market economy conditions and to ensure fair treatment in anti-dumping procedures.
• Formulating submissions based on economic analysis to show or disprove injury and causation aspects in EU anti-dumping investigations.
• Developing and implementing lobbying strategies to influence key decisionmakers in anti-dumping and anti-dumping procedures.
• Drafting and filing submissions to demonstrate where the overall interests of the EU lie in anti-dumping and/or anti-subsidy procedures.
• Making requests for refunds of duties through the EU’s anti-dumping refund procedure and following through on the subsequent procedures.

Our lawyers regularly represent our clients in formal hearings before the European Commission, and are equally experienced in making written and oral representations, not only at the EU institutional level, but also before key national authorities of EU Member States. Members of our team have worked inside the Directorate General for Trade of the European Commission as well as the European courts. Our European lawyers and paralegals are proficient in numerous languages, including English, French, German, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish, and Chinese — skills that are an essential component of effective service in the field of EU trade law.

Crowell & Moring's safeguard actions lawyers also represent clients in investigations conducted by the U.S. International Trade Commission relating to the following:

• Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974 (involving global safeguard investigations)
• Section 302 of the NAFTA Implementation Act (concentrating on imports from a NAFTA country)
• Section 406 of the Trade Act of 1974 (involving investigations into imports articles produced in a Communist country)

We also understand that litigation is not always the best solution to resolving our clients' trade-related problems. Many of our greatest successes for clients have been achieved through effective public policy representation before the key administrative and Congressional offices that influence or dictate trade policy and law.