19 U.S.C. § 2253 — Action by President after determination of import injury

(a) In general. (1)(A) After receiving a report under section 2252(f) containing an affirmative finding of serious injury, or threat of serious injury, to a domestic industry, the President must take all appropriate and feasible action within the President's power that the President determines will help the domestic industry make a positive adjustment to import competition and provide greater economic and social benefits than costs. (B) The President decides the action's extent and duration, subject to paragraph (e)(1). (C) For each affirmative determination reported under section 2252(f), the interagency trade organization established under section 1872(a) must recommend to the President what action to take.

(2) In deciding what action to take, the President must consider: (A) the Commission's recommendation and report; (B) how much workers and firms in the domestic industry benefit from adjustment assistance and other manpower programs and are engaged in retraining; (C) the industry's efforts, including efforts in an adjustment plan or commitment submitted under section 2252(a), to adjust positively to import competition; (D) how effective the actions authorized by paragraph (3) are likely to be; (E) the short- and long-term economic and social costs of those actions compared with their benefits, and other considerations about the industry's position in the United States economy; (F) other factors related to the national economic interest, including costs that taxpayers, communities, and workers would bear without relief, effects on consumers and competition in domestic markets, and the effect on United States industries and firms of international obligations concerning compensation; (G) diversion of foreign exports to the United States market because of foreign restraints; (H) possible circumvention; (I) national security interests; and (J) the factors the Commission must consider under section 2252(e)(5).

(3) For purposes of paragraph (1), the President may: (A) proclaim an increase in, or impose, a duty^* on the imported article; (B) proclaim a tariff-rate quota; (C) proclaim a modification or imposition of a quantitative restriction on importing the article into the United States; (D) carry out appropriate adjustment measures, including trade adjustment assistance under part 2 of this subchapter; (E) negotiate, conclude, and carry out agreements with foreign countries limiting exports from those countries and imports into the United States of the article; (F) establish procedures to allocate by auction among importers the import licenses for permitted quantities; (G) start international negotiations about the underlying cause of increased imports or ways to reduce the injury or threat; (H) submit legislative proposals to Congress; (I) take any other action authorized by law that the President considers appropriate and feasible for paragraph (1); and (J) combine actions in (A) through (I).

(4)(A) Subject to subparagraph (B), the President must act under paragraph (1) within 60 days after receiving the Commission's report containing an affirmative determination under section 2252(b)(1), or within 50 days if provisional relief under section 2252(d)(2)(D) was proclaimed for the article. (B) If a supplemental report is requested under paragraph (5), the President must act within 30 days after receiving it. If provisional relief was proclaimed, the action may not be taken later than the 200th day after that relief was proclaimed.

(5) Within 15 days after receiving the Commission's report containing an affirmative determination under section 2252(b)(1), the President may request additional information. As soon as practicable, and no later than 30 days after receiving the request, the Commission must provide the information about the industry in a supplemental report.

(b) Reports to Congress. (1) On the day the President acts under subsection (a)(1), the President must send Congress a document describing the action and the reasons. If the action differs from the action the Commission was required to recommend under section 2252(e)(1), the President must explain the difference in detail. (2) On the day the President decides there is no appropriate and feasible action under subsection (a)(1) for a domestic industry, the President must send Congress a document giving detailed reasons. (3) On the day the President takes an action under subsection (a)(1) that paragraph (1) does not cover, the President must send Congress a document stating the action and the reasons.

(c) Implementing the Commission's recommendation. If the President reports under subsection (b)(1) or (2) that (1) the action differs from the Commission's recommendation under section 2252(e)(1), or (2) no action will be taken, the Commission's recommended action takes effect as subsection (d)(2) provides if Congress enacts the joint resolution described in section 2192(a)(1)(A) within 90 days after the relevant document is sent to Congress.

(d) Time for certain relief to take effect. (1) Unless paragraph (2) applies, an action under subsection (a)(3)(A), (B), or (C) must take effect within 15 days after the President proclaims it. If, on the day the President decides to take the action, the President announces an intention to negotiate an agreement under subsection (a)(3)(E), the action must be proclaimed and take effect within 90 days after that decision. (2) If subsection (c) applies, the President must proclaim the Commission's recommended action within 30 days after the joint resolution is enacted.

(e) Limits on actions. (1)(A) An action under this section may last no more than 4 years, including any period of provisional relief under section 2252(d). (B)(i) After receiving an affirmative determination from the Commission under section 2254(c), or a determination the President treats as affirmative because the Commission was equally divided, the President may extend an action if the President determines that it remains necessary to prevent or remedy the serious injury and evidence shows that the domestic industry is making a positive adjustment to import competition. (ii) The total period, including extensions, may not exceed 8 years.

(2) An action of the type described in subsection (a)(3)(A), (B), or (C) may be taken under subsection (a)(1), section 2252(d)(1)(G), or section 2252(d)(2)(D) only to the extent its cumulative effect does not exceed what is necessary to prevent or remedy the serious injury. (3) No action may raise a duty, or impose a duty, to a rate more than 50 percent ad valorem^* above the rate, if any, existing when the action is taken. (4) A quantitative restriction must allow importation of at least the average quantity or value imported during the most recent 3 representative years for which data are available, unless the President finds a different quantity or value clearly justified to prevent or remedy the serious injury. (5) An action under subsection (a)(3)(A), (B), or (C) lasting more than 1 year must be phased down at regular intervals.

(6)(A) The suspension, under an action taken under this section, of subheading 9802.00.60 or 9802.00.80 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States for an article, or of the designation of an article as eligible for purposes of subchapter V, is treated as an increase in duty. (B) The President may not proclaim, and the Commission may not recommend, such a suspension unless, in addition to making an affirmative determination under section 2252(b)(1), the Commission determines during its investigation under section 2252(b) that the serious injury, or threat of it, substantially caused by imports to the domestic industry producing a like or directly competitive article resulted from applying one of those subheadings or from designating the article as eligible under subchapter V.

(7)(A) If an article was subject to an action under subsection (a)(3)(A), (B), (C), or (E), no new action under any of those subparagraphs may be taken for the longer of a period equal to the prior action's duration beginning when it ends, or 2 years beginning when it ends. (B) Despite subparagraph (A), if the prior action lasted 180 days or less, the President may take a new action if at least 1 year has passed since the prior action began and no action described in those subparagraphs was taken for the article more than twice during the 5 years immediately before the new action first takes effect.

(f) Certain agreements. (1) If the President takes action other than implementing an agreement of the type described in subsection (a)(3)(E), the President may later negotiate such an agreement and, after it takes effect, suspend or terminate all or part of the earlier action. (2) If an agreement implemented under subsection (a)(3)(E) is not effective, the President may take additional action under subsection (a), consistent with subsection (e).

(g) Regulations. (1) The President must issue regulations for the efficient and fair administration of all actions taken to provide import relief under this part. (2) To carry out an international agreement under this part, the President may issue regulations governing entry into, or withdrawal from a warehouse of, articles covered by the agreement. For an agreement under subsection (a)(3)(E) with one or more countries accounting for a major part of United States imports of the article, including imports into a major geographic area of the United States, the President may also regulate entry into, or withdrawal from a warehouse of, like articles made in countries that are not parties to the agreement. (3) Regulations must, as far as practicable and consistent with efficient and fair administration, prevent inequitable sharing of imports by a relatively small number of larger importers.