Criminalization of Import Valuations: The U. S. government continues to up the ante for trade violations

摘要

The United States has both criminal and civil laws in place that govern import violations. Yet, except for the most egregious violations, the U.S. government has traditionally imposed customs-related civil penalties for trade violations such as failure to pay antidumping duties or inaccurate country of origin marking. Thus, most criminal laws historically had been gathering dust. In the past few years, however, the U.S. government has signaled a sea change in its enforcement strategy and has been increasingly subjecting trade law violators to severe criminal penalties.