Battle Brews Over Byrd Amendment
 
March 17, 2003
 

In his 2004 budget request President Bush has asked Congress to repeal the Byrd Amendment by the end of the current fiscal year.  The Byrd Amendment, a two-year-old trade law, officially known as the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000, directs U.S. Customs to distribute duties collected as a result of antidumping and countervailing duty orders to domestic producers found to be injured by foreign dumping and subsidies.  Recipients of these duties range from big steel producers to the makers of candles.  On February 19, 2003, Customs published a list of fiscal year 2002 disbursements under the law that totaled $329 million.  The WTO ruled the law illegal in September of 2002 on the basis that it is in violation of international trade rules and is, in effect, an unfair subsidy.  In January, the WTO's Appellate Body upheld that ruling.  However, the Administration is facing tough resistance to its proposal to repeal the law by over two-thirds of the U.S. Senate.  The senators urged the President, in a letter dated February 4, 2003, to instead negotiate with U.S. trading partners in an effort to preserve the measure they believe important to maintain U.S. jobs that would be lost due to illegal dumping or unfair subsidies.