The Enforce and Protect Act: A Primer on the Administrative CBP Process and Summary of Judicial Decisions

Enacted in 2015, the Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA)1 gives U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) enhanced tools to enforce U.S. antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) laws and to protect US industry, which has complained for years that importers and foreign sellers were evading US AD/CVD orders.2 From the point of view of many in US industry, by the time CBP took enforcement action, violators would disappear and CBP would be unable to collect AD/CVD owed for products imported into the United States.3 As a result, US industry would contend that the intended effects of the AD/CVD order, namely, a more level playing field, were often not realized. US industry successfully lobbied for Congress to give CBP increased powers to fight AD/CVD evasion. The EAPA is the result of those efforts. Prior to the EAPA, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) would conduct AD/CVD investigations and, if the results of the investigation warranted, Commerce would issue an AD/CVD order.

Importers would, per the mandate of 19 U.S.C. � 1484,4 then exercise reasonable care and be required to determine whether the goods they import were subject to an AD/CVD order. A failure of an importer to exercise reasonable care subjected the importer to possible civil penalties under 19 U.S.C. � 1592 or, in more egregious (willful) cases, criminal prosecution under 18 U.S.C. � 545.5