Anti-dumping duties (ADD) and countervailing duties (CVD) are some of the most financially punishing tariffs an importer can face — and they're the ones that most often catch importers by surprise. Unlike Section 301 or Section 232, which apply broadly to product categories from specific countries, AD/CVD orders target very specific products from very specific countries based on trade investigations. If your product is covered by one, the additional duty can range from single digits to over 200%.
What Are Anti-Dumping Duties?
Dumping occurs when a foreign manufacturer sells a product in the U.S. at a price below its fair market value in the home country — essentially selling at an unfairly low price to gain market share. When the U.S. Department of Commerce determines that dumping is occurring and the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) determines that it's injuring a domestic industry, an anti-dumping duty order is issued. The ADD rate is calculated to offset the dumping margin — the difference between the product's U.S. price and its fair value.
What makes AD rates particularly tricky is that they're often specific to individual foreign producers. One Chinese manufacturer of steel pipe might face a rate of 30%, while another faces 75%, depending on how Commerce calculated each company's dumping margin. If you're buying from a producer that didn't participate in the investigation, you may face the highest rate of all — the "all others" or "China-wide" rate, which is often punishingly high.
What Are Countervailing Duties?
Countervailing duties address a different problem: government subsidies. When a foreign government provides unfair subsidies to its domestic producers — below-market loans, tax breaks, free land, energy subsidies, export incentives — and those subsidized products are exported to the U.S., CVD can be imposed to offset the subsidy's effect. CVD rates are typically lower than AD rates but can still be significant, and they often apply alongside AD orders on the same product.
How to Check If Your Product Is Affected
The International Trade Administration (ITA) maintains a searchable database of all active AD/CVD orders at trade.gov/enforcement. You can search by product, country, or HTS code. If your product and source country match an active order, you need to understand the specific duty rate that applies to your supplier and ensure it's properly declared on your customs entry.
Your customs broker should be catching these, but I've seen cases where AD/CVD exposure was missed — especially for products where the scope description in the order is broader than importers expect. Certain steel and aluminum orders, for example, cover a wider range of downstream products than the casual reader might assume. If you're importing metals or metal products from China, Vietnam, Korea, or India, an AD/CVD check should be standard practice.
The Deposit and Liquidation Process
AD/CVD works differently from normal duties in an important way. When you import a product subject to an AD/CVD order, you pay an estimated duty deposit at the time of entry. Commerce then conducts annual administrative reviews to calculate the actual dumping or subsidy margin for that period. When the review is finalized — which can take two to three years — your entries are liquidated at the actual rate. If the actual rate is higher than your deposit, you owe the difference plus interest. If it's lower, you get a refund.
This creates genuine financial uncertainty. You might deposit duties at 20%, only to learn three years later that the final rate is 40%. Or you might get a pleasant surprise and receive a refund. The unpredictability is one of the most difficult aspects of importing products subject to AD/CVD orders, and it makes financial planning much harder than with fixed-rate duties.
Circumvention and Evasion — The Red Lines
Commerce and CBP take AD/CVD evasion extremely seriously. Routing goods through a third country to disguise their true origin, performing minor processing in another country to avoid an order, or undervaluing goods to reduce the duty deposit are all forms of evasion that carry severe penalties. The Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) gives CBP specific authority to investigate AD/CVD evasion, and the penalties include duties owed on all evaded entries plus interest and potential criminal prosecution.
If you're legitimately sourcing from a country not subject to an AD/CVD order, make sure you can document the product's origin and manufacturing process thoroughly. As orders have proliferated, Commerce has also expanded its use of "scope rulings" and "circumvention inquiries" to bring more products and countries under existing orders. Staying informed about these proceedings is an ongoing compliance obligation.