The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a report entitled, Antidumping and Countervailing Duties – CBP Action Needed to Reduce Duty Processing Errors and Mitigate Nonpayment Risk (GAO-16-542) that reviews efforts by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to improve the collection of AD/CV duties. The report (1) examined the status and composition of uncollected AD/CV duties, (2) the extent to which CBP has taken steps to improve its collection of such duties, and (3) the extent to which CBP assesses and mitigates the risk to revenue from potentially uncollectible AD/CV duties. GAO analyzed CBP AD/CV duty entry data for fiscal years 2001 through 2014, AD/CV duty billing data as of mid-May 2015, and Department of Commerce data for fiscal years 2002–2015. GAO also reviewed agency documents, interviewed agency and private sector officials, and analyzed CBP data to assess the risk of duty nonpayment.
GAO estimates that about $2.3 billion in antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duties owed to the U.S. government were uncollected as of mid-May 2015, based on its analysis of AD/CV duty bills for goods entering the United States in fiscal years 2001–2014. CBP reported that it does not expect to collect most of that debt. GAO found that most AD/CV duty bills were paid and that unpaid bills were concentrated among a small number of importers, with 20 accounting for about 50 percent of the $2.3 billion uncollected. CBP data show that most of those importers stopped importing before receiving their first AD/CV duty bill.
GAO said that CBP has undertaken efforts to improve its collection of AD/CV duties or to protect against the risk of unpaid final duty bills through bonding, but these efforts have yielded limited results. CBP’s limited analysis of the risk to revenue from potentially uncollectible AD/CV duties (nonpayment risk) misses opportunities to identify and mitigate nonpayment risk.
GAO recommended that CBP (1) issue guidance to collect and analyze data on a regular basis to find and address the causes of AD/CV duty liquidation errors and track progress; (2) regularly conduct a comprehensive risk analysis that considers likelihood as well as significance of risk factors related to duty nonpayment; and (3) take steps to use its data and risk assessment strategically to mitigate AD/CV duty nonpayment consistent with U.S. law and international trade obligations. CBP concurred with all three recommendations.
