International Trade Administration ITA

A 1979 trade reorganization moved responsibility for enforcing laws against unfairly traded imports from the Treasury to Commerce, and the International Trade Administration was established on January 2, 1980. It is led by the Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade. Overall trade negotiating policy belongs to the U.S. Trade Representative, while ITA handles export promotion and import enforcement.

Its Global Markets unit, the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service, staffs offices in more than a hundred American cities and in U.S. embassies in roughly eighty countries to help companies, especially small and midsize firms, find foreign buyers. It also runs SelectUSA, which courts foreign investment in American factories. Its Enforcement and Compliance unit investigates complaints that foreign goods are dumped below fair value or unfairly subsidized and calculates antidumping and countervailing duties, while the separate U.S. International Trade Commission decides whether domestic industry has been injured.

Antidumping and countervailing duty cases have reached record numbers, targeting products such as steel, solar panels, and aluminum from China and other countries. Supporters say these trade remedy laws are a rules-based way to counter foreign subsidies and protect American jobs, while importers and many economists argue that the duties raise costs for manufacturers and consumers that rely on imported inputs.