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EU: Additional 15 percent Customs duty on certain U.S. goods
The Byrd Amendment’s impact on the European Union (EU) marketplace has forced the EU to impose a 15 percent additional duty on specific American imports for the past two years.
Now, the EU increased the number of affected products to 58. This is an additional 32 item increase subject to the additional 15 percent duty put in place since May 1, 2005.
Two years ago, the Byrd Amendment’s impact on the EU marketplace was estimated at $28 million. The European Commission now estimates the impact has risen to more than $81 million from $28 million. To compensate for the increased impact, the Commission is adding goods to the affected list.
Affected products
In the 2005 legislation, 18 products received additional duty. One year later, the Commission added eight more products to the affected list after a $37 million impact on the marketplace.
The varied items include clothing and footwear, paper goods, corn and eyeglass frames. For a complete list of items, please see Annex I of Regulation 409/2007 at:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2007/l_100/
l_10020070417en00160019.pdf
Products with import licenses issued prior to April 16, 2007 outlining an exemption form or a duty reduction are exempt from the additional 15 percent duty.
Shipments of any of the new 32 products proven to be in transit at the time of implementation with an unchangeable destination are also exempt from the additional duty.
Products going to any country in the European Union will be affected. Countries include: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Byrd Amendment background
The Byrd Amendment provides that anti-dumping duties collected after a complaint from U.S. companies are distributed to the companies bringing or supporting the complaints.
The Byrd Amendment was ruled illegal by the World Trade Organization and four U.S. trading partners (Canada, Mexico, Japan and EU) imposed approximately $134 million in retaliatory tariffs. U.S. products with higher tariffs include baby formula, oysters, wine, dairy products, candy and chewing gum.
On December 21, 2006, the Senate passed the repeal of the Byrd Amendment, officially known as the Continued Dumping & Subsidy Offset Act, with a vote of 51-50.
There is a two-year phase-out of the Byrd Amendment allowing the disbursement to affected domestic companies of anti-dumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duties collected on goods entered before October 1, 2007. In 2005, more than half of the $225 million in tariff revenue has been distributed to just five companies.
With the increasing risk in today’s import environment, Avalon is fully committed to your industry. Avalon has written more than one million Customs bonds since the company was founded in 1998. Avalon’s Customs surety program is underwritten by our sister company, Lincoln General Insurance Company. Because both Avalon and Lincoln are wholly owned subsidiaries of Kingsway Financial Services, you can be assured of our commitment to your industry.
For further information, please contact Andriana Davis, Product Manager at Avalon’s corporate headquarters. Andriana Davis can be reached at 847-700-8087 or at
adavis@avalonrisk.com.
Please do not hesitate to contact one of our nine regional
offices throughout the United States.
To view a directory of Avalon’s office locations, please
visit our Web site at
www.avalonrisk.com.
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