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U.S. repeals Byrd Amendment Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, 2/14/2006 7:13:00 AM Import duties collected after September 2007 will go to government WASHINGTON — The U.S. government has repealed the Byrd Amendment, the controversial trade law that is allowing some U.S. furniture manufacturers to collect millions of dollars in import duties. Congress repealed the amendment as part of a budget bill, which President Bush signed into law on Feb. 8. The move will eliminate the payment of antidumping duties beyond Oct. 1, 2007, to U.S. manufacturers that petitioned for a federal investigation into the alleged dumping of Chinese-made wood bedroom...

WASHINGTON — Congress put its final stamp of approval Wednesday on legislation dumping a trade law that allows U.S. companies to profit from penalties on Canadian imports like softwood lumber. The measure, which goes into effect Oct. 1, 2007, was part of a massive budget-cutting bill passed by the House of Representatives. President George W. Bush said in a statement he looked forward to signing the bill. Canada has always argued the so-called Byrd amendment must go. The five-year-old law allows the Treasury to funnel money from duties on imported goods directly to U.S. rival companies. It's still unclear what...

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan became the latest major US trading partner to impose sanctions to protest a US anti-dumping law, taking the unprecedented step of levying punitive tariffs on 15 US goods including steel. The tariffs will cost US exporters more than 50 million dollars and be set at 15 percent from September 1, in line with similar moves by Canada and the European Union against the so-called Byrd Amendment. The law enacted in 2000 redistributes US levies on dumping -- the selling of items abroad at lower prices than in the domestic market -- to the US companies that...

Senate Bolsters Enforcement Against Illegal Aliens (Last Updated: 9:00am, Thursday) In a 65-34 vote on Wednesday, the Senate approved an additional 1,068 immigration enforcement agents as part of the Iraq supplemental spending bill. It was a rebuff to President Bush who had asked for only 210 extra. The $389.6 million immigration reduction measure was proposed by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) and passed with unanimous support among the 44 Democrats and approval by 21 of the 55 Republicans. If approved in a joint Senate/House Conference Committee, it would provide for 650 additional Border Patrol, 418 new interior enforcement agents to detect...

American consumers of everything from shrimp and pasta to candles, ball bearings and steel already bear the high price of anti-dumping tariffs slapped by Washington on hundreds of imports. Now Americans are about to pay again for an anti-dumping policy that is akin to letting the inmates run the asylum. The World Trade Organization ruled this week that the U.S. could be hit with retaliatory duties if it doesn't do away with the Byrd Amendment. This nasty little rule rewards domestic producers that support dumping petitions with the proceeds of anti-dumping duties. Talk about perverse incentives. The possible retaliators --...

Canada joined seven other countries Thursday in seeking authorization from the World Trade Organization to initiate trade sanctions against the United States after it failed to repeal the so-called Byrd Amendment, a law that turns countervailing duties over to U.S. companies. The Byrd Amendment has already been declared illegal by the WTO. The U.S. failed to meet a Dec. 27 deadline to repeal it. It is a major reason why U.S. lumber companies were so eager to seek trade sanctions against Canadian lumber, as they can benefit not only by pushing up the cost of Canadian lumber sold in the...

GENEVA, Jul 17, 2002 (Kyodo via COMTEX) -- A World Trade Organization (WTO) arbitration panel has ruled that a U.S. law that allows the U.S. government to share antidumping duties with the affected domestic industry violates WTO agreements, trade sources said Wednesday. The sources said the WTO dispute settlement panel on Wednesday sent a confidential interim report on its ruling to the United States, Japan and other countries involved in the dispute. The dispute involves the so-called Byrd Amendment, which allows antidumping tariffs collected by the U.S. government to be shared with domestic industries allegedly to help offset damages...