First Page
170
Abstract
The United States’ Countervailing Duties Law protects domestic markets by offsetting any benefit foreign manufacturers receive from their domestic governments’ subsidy programs. The benefit analysis the Department of Commerce uses under the Countervailing Duties Law, however, is too vague. Moreover, the sole environmental exemption for otherwise countervailable subsidies is too narrow. As a result, Commerce assesses duties on an array of manufacturers burdened by foreign governments’ climate policies. The case study BGH Edelstahl v. US underscores the issue of the Countervailing Duties Law’s definition of “benefits conferred” and the limited environmental exemption. This Note compares the shortcomings of the Countervailing Duties Law’s benefit analysis with the tax code’s benefit analysis in the employer-employee relationship. Then, this Note proposes a new benefit analysis for the Countervailing Duties Law to account for a foreign government’s environmental policy.
Recommended Citation
Michael J. Havens,
International Trade and Climate Policy: Revising the Benefit Analysis for Countervailing Duties,
51 Brook. J. Int'l L.
170
(2025).
Available at:
https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/bjil/vol51/iss1/5