Fair Trade Law Enhancement Act of 1999

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Title I: Safeguard Amendments

Title II: Amendments to Title VII of the Tariff Act of 1930

Title III: Steel Import Notification

Fair Trade Law Enhancement Act of 1999 - Title I: Safeguard Amendments - Amends the Trade Act of 1974 to repeal the requirement that the cause of serious injury (or threat of it) be substantial to the domestic industry producing an article like or directly competitive with an article that is being imported into the United States in such increased quantities with respect to the President taking action to facilitate efforts by such industry to make a positive adjustment to the import competition.

(Sec. 101) Declares that imports shall be considered to be a "cause of serious injury, or threat thereof," when a causal link is established between imports and injury to the domestic industry.

Revises certain factors the International Trade Commission (ITC) must consider when investigating whether an article is being imported into the United States in such increased quantities as to be a substantial cause of serious injury (or threat of it) to the domestic industry producing an article like or directly competitive with the imported article. Repeals, similarly, the requirement that such injury be substantial.

(Sec. 102) Requires the ITC, for purposes of an investigation, to focus on the merchant market when determining the domestic industry's market share in producing an article like or directly competitive with the imported article in cases in which domestic producers transfer internally (including related parties) significant production of the like or directly competitive article for the production of a downstream article and sell significant production of such article in the merchant market (captive production).

(Sec. 103) Directs the ITC to find that a rebuttable presumption that a domestic industry is threatened with serious injury, or a rebuttable presumption of critical circumstances, exists due to such imports if it finds there has been a rapid decline in domestic prices for the like or directly competitive article and a rapid increase in the imported articles. Requires the ITC in any case in which such presumptions do not apply, or in which they apply but are rebutted, to conduct a threat of serious injury or of critical circumstances analysis as if no such presumption applied.

Title II: Amendments to Title VII of the Tariff Act of 1930 - Amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to make similar changes with respect to its countervailing duty and antidumping duty provisions.

(Sec. 207) Prohibits the administering authority (Secretary of Commerce), for purposes of suspending an antidumping duty or countervailing duty investigation, from accepting an agreement with another country to eliminate or offset a countervailable subsidy placed by such country on an export to the United States or an agreement to cease such exports to, or eliminate their injurious effect on, the United States unless, among other things, such agreement is supported by domestic producers or workers accounting for more than 50 percent of the total production of the domestic like product.

(Sec. 209) Revises the method for calculating the constructed export price of subject merchandise by reducing such price, among other things, by an amount equal to the dumping margin or the net countervailable subsidy unless the producer or exporter is able to demonstrate that the importer of such merchandise was in no way reimbursed for any antidumping duties paid on such merchandise.

(Sec. 211) Requires the ITC, for purposes of an antidumping duty or countervailing duty investigation, to treat the producers of an agricultural product that has a short shelf life (perishable product) in a defined period or season as the domestic industry. Sets forth certain factors that the ITC can, cannot, or shall consider when making material injury determinations with respect to such products for the seasonal period.

(Sec. 212) Requires the ITC, when making a determination of whether a countervailable subsidy exists in a country where transactions do not reflect market conditions due to government action associated with provision of the subject good or service or purchase of such goods, to make such determination through comparison with the most comparable market price elsewhere in the world.

Title III: Steel Import Notification - Directs the Secretary to establish and implement a steel import notification and monitoring program. Requires: (1) a person to have a steel import notification certificate before he or she can import certain steel products into the United States; and (2) the Secretary to issue such certificate to any person who files an application that meets specified requirements. Requires the Secretary to compile and publish certain information with respect to such imported steel.