Congressman Bill Owens, D-Plattsburgh, has become a cosponsor of the “Enforcing Orders and Reducing Circumvention and Evasion Act” (ENFORCE), bipartisan legislation that holds foreign nations accountable who explicitly evade international trade laws and hurt American manufacturers.

“If passed, this bill will be a big win for domestic manufacturers,” said Owens. “China continues to evade U.S. trade enforcement policies that are designed to protect domestic manufacturers. This legislation sends a clear message that we will not stand by as other countries break the rules and undercut American manufacturers.”

Foreign exporters, mainly from China, have been known to intentionally mislabel shipments and reroute products through third-party countries in an effort to deceive U.S. customs officials and circumvent U.S. trade laws.

The ENFORCE Act, H.R. 3057, was introduced by Representatives Billy Long (R-Missouri) and Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.). The bill targets foreign companies that illegally evade payments when their products enter the United States by:

• Speeding up the investigation process through shorter enforcement timelines and requiring larger bond postings from evasion suspects;

• Creating a framework to investigate foreign goods that are purposely misidentified to evade anti-dumping or countervailing duties; and

• Allowing domestic companies to petition Customs and Border Patrol to investigate suspected illegal practices and deploy resources to ports where evasion is most common.