EC Extends Byrd Amendment Sanctions to 32 Additional U.S. Products Effective May 1, 2007

(In February 2006, the President signed into law S. 1932 which, among other things, repealed the Byrd Amendment. However, S.1932 provided that all duties on entries of goods made and filed before October 1, 2007, that would, but for this repeal, be distributed under section 754 of the Tariff of 1930, shall be distributed as if section 754 had not been repealed. (See ITT's Online Archives or 02/10/06 news, 06021005, for BP summary of the repeal.)

European Union (EU) sources have previously explained that it is the EC's policy to wait until all disbursement associated with the Byrd Amendment has ceased before considering lifting the sanctions. This means that the sanctions could remain in place for a number of years after October 1, 2007.)

EC Lists CN Codes for 32 U.S.-Origin Products Newly Subject to 15% Additional Duties

According to the EC, the following 32 combined nomenclature (CN) codes are being added to the list of codes subject to Byrd Amendment 15% additional duties (previously, these 32 CN codes were listed as "reserve" CN codes on which the EC could choose impose additional retaliatory duties):

The EC states that products for which an import license was issued before April 17, 2007 with an exemption from, or a reduction of duty, will not be subject to the additional duty. In addition, products classified under these 32 CN codes for which it can be demonstrated that they were already en route to the European Community on May 1, 2007, and whose destination cannot be changed, shall not be subject to the additional duties. Similar exemptions were put in place for those CN codes that became subject to additional duties in May 2006.

(See EC regulation No 673/2005 (available below), which originally imposed the Byrd amendment sanctions in 2005, for other possible exemptions.)

List of CN Codes for U.S.-Origin Products That Continue to be Subject to 15% Additional Duties

In addition to the newly added CN codes, the following CN codes continue to be subject to Byrd Amendment 15% additional duties:

(See ITT's Online Archives or 05/05/06 news, 06050505, for BP summary of the imposition of Byrd Amendment Sanctions on May 1, 2006.)

EC Regulation No 409/2007 (dated 04/16/07) available athttp://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2007/l_100/l_10020070417en00160019.pdf

EC Regulation No 673/2005 (dated 04/25/05) available at http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2005/l_110/l_11020050430en00010005.pdf

EC table listing all EC codes, by effective date, that are subject to Byrd Amendment additional duties (also provides product descriptions) (dated 04/17/07) available at http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2007/april/tradoc_134483.pdf

BP Notes

According to the United States Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel (USA-ITA), the additional codes include U.S. origin high-end apparel items.

The Byrd Amendment had required that the revenues from antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duties assessed on or after October 1, 2000 be distributed on an annual basis to the affected domestic producers (i.e. currently operating producers (including worker representatives) that were either petitioners for the AD/CV duty order in question or interested parties in support of the petition) for specified qualifying expenditures (e.g. manufacturing facilities, research and development, personnel training). (See ITT's Online Archives or 10/19/00 news, 00101837, for BP summary.)