Washington, Dc, September 27, 2005 -- The National Retail Federation today welcomed a General Accounting Office report that questioned the effectiveness of the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act, also known as the Byrd Amendment.
“This report confirms everything we’ve ever said about why the Byrd Amendment should be overturned,” NRF vice president and International Trade counsel Erik Autor said. “It’s a violation of international trade rules that’s drawing retaliation from our trade partners and undermines our ability to force other nations to play by the rules, it encourages the filing of frivolous anti-dumping cases, and it does nothing to create or protect U.S. jobs.”
“The Byrd Amendment virtually defines corporate welfare,” Autor said. “This is a massive payola scheme that takes money out of the U.S. Treasury and uses it to line the pockets of private companies that have done nothing to earn it except sign on to anti-dumping petitions that drive up prices for American consumers. The Byrd Amendment was one of the worst pieces of trade legislation in recent memory. Now that Congress has this report in hand, it’s time for Congress to move quickly to repeal this abuse of the legislative process.”
The Byrd Amendment is named for Senator Robert Byrd (D-W.V.), who slipped the provision into a conference report on a massive agriculture appropriations bill the night before House passage in 2000. The provision was inserted without committee hearings, public comment or debate, and most lawmakers were unaware of its presence in the appropriations bill until after they had already voted. The amendment mandates that duties collected in anti-dumping and countervailing duties cases be distributed to the companies that brought or supported the cases.
A long-awaited GAO report released today found that nearly half of the $1 billion in payments made under CDSOA have gone to only five companies and that third-thirds have been paid out to only three industries: bearings, candles and steel. The report notes that the World Trade Organization has ruled that CDSOA violates international trade rules and that U.S. trading partners have begun imposing retaliatory duties on U.S. exports.
NRF supports H.R. 1121, legislation sponsored by Representative Jim Ramstad (R-MN) that would repeal the Byrd Amendment. NRF is a member of the Consuming Industries Trade Action Coalition, and this spring helped form the CITAC Byrd Working Group to work for repeal of the amendment.
