CBP Concerns Raised During Lew Nomination Hearing
Strong language on CBP -- including concern over prioritizing its trade mission and collecting antidumping duties -- was part of new Treasury Secretary Jack Lew’s nomination hearing. Prepared questions from Lew’s Feb. 13 hearing before the Senate Finance Committee are now available on the committee’s website, here and here. The committee approved Lew’s nomination Feb. 26, and the Senate is confirmed his nomination 71-26 Feb. 27. During the hearing, Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said he was concerned that CBP does not “prioritize its trade mission. In fact, it has diminished as the Agency shifted its focus to security.”
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Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in the prepared questions he was concerned CBP is "increasingly disinterested in its revenue collection responsibility, particularly with respect to collecting anti-dumping and countervailing duties and the sureties associated with them.” On Feb. 7, Wyden and fellow Sen. John Thune, R-SD, sent a letter to CBP and the Treasury Department asking for immediate assistance in resolving a failure to collect bonds owed on agricultural imports from China (see ITT's Online Archives 13021127). In his questions, Thune said CBP’s inaction on that issue is both embarrassing and a “glaring problem.” Thune asked Lew to provide a full accounting of the bonds, and direct CBP to "pursue all necessary means to collect these bonds for the sake of American taxpayers and American producers injured by the unfairly priced Chinese imports." In his prepared answer, Lew replied yes, and said he looks forward to working with the Finance Committee, CBP and the Department of Homeland Security on issues related to import duty collection.