An Anti-Circumvention Inquiry is a formal Commerce Department proceeding to determine whether a product is circumventing an existing antidumping or countervailing duty order through one of several specified strategies. The statute is 19 U.S.C. § 1677j, and procedures are at 19 CFR § 351.226.
Commerce can find circumvention under four scenarios:
- Merchandise completed or assembled in the U.S. — Subject merchandise that's imported in parts and completed/assembled in the United States, where the value added is "small"
- Merchandise completed or assembled in third countries — Parts shipped from the subject country to a third country, completed/assembled there, then exported to the U.S.
- Minor alterations — The product has been altered in "form or appearance in minor respects" to avoid the order
- Later-developed merchandise — A product developed after the original investigation that is essentially the same as covered merchandise
Commerce considers factors including pattern of trade, relationship between the parties, and increased shipments from the third country since initiation of the order.
In recent years, anti-circumvention inquiries have focused heavily on solar cells and panels from Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia) — alleged to be circumventing the China solar cells AD/CVD orders. Commerce issued affirmative circumvention findings against producers in those countries in 2023, with suspension of liquidation and cash deposits applying after a moratorium period.
Anti-circumvention determinations work alongside EAPA investigations administered by CBP, which target evasion by individual importers rather than systemic transshipment patterns.