[By permission of the Chairman.]

Statement of Beatrice Khne and Sigrid Zirbel, Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie, e.V., Berlin, Germany

1. About BDI

The BDI (Federation of German Industries) is the umbrella organization for a total of 35 industrial sector associations and groups of associations in Germany. It represents the interests of more than 100,000 enterprises ,employing about 8 million people, in dealings with national and international legislative and decision-making bodies.

2. Why BDI supports the repeal of the Byrd Amendment

• The World Trade Organizationn (WTO) has found that the Byrd Amendment violates WTO agreements and distorts trade. However, the U.S. has ignored this ruling.
• Failing to act on the WTOs ruling undermines the U.S. government`s ability to take a leadership role on international trade issues.
• The Byrd amendment  takes a dual toll on global companies: first, foreign companies are forced to pay these duties. Second, due to the Byrd Amendment, the duty payments are then transferred to competitors from the U.S..
• The Byrd Amendmen encourages U.S. producer to file trade actions, as they know full well that they will be eligible for subsidies. U.S. companies in line to re­ceive these payments have a clear incentive to include more products within the scope of anti-dumping or anti-subsidy cases, including products not even made in the U.S..
• Products that are not produced in the U.S. are still included in the scope of products subject to Byrd Amendment duties – due solely to the potential windfall of Byrd payments, which has totalled more than $ 1 billion to date, with billions more waiting in the wings.
• The allocation of Byrd Amendment money is based on “qualified expenditures”, which are not monitored or audited by Customs or any other government agency.
• German industries rely on open trade for their export sales. The Byrd Amendment makes exporting raw materials for U.S. consuming industries and consumers more difficult and risky, increasing their costs and uncertainty.

3. BDI Position

The intent of antidumping measures is to neutralize any detrimental effects of dump­ing. The Byrd Amendment passes funds from importers to complaining parties, which amounts to overcompensation (dumping tariffs on imports and financial transfer to com­plaining companies). The Byrd Amendment encourages the use of the antidumping in­strument and has therefore been recognized as clearly in violation of WTO rules. The US should bring its antidumping laws into WTO compliance as soon as possible and repeal the Byrd Amendment.