Once the verification is finished, the Commerce Department staff members begin to draft the verification reports. During this period, the outside lawyers and the foreign company can often be of assistance to the Commerce Department staff in Washington DC. Sometimes the Commerce Department staff members forget the explanations of certain accounting documents. Other times the Commerce Department staff members remember having seen a certain document, but not making a copy of it. Providing the requested explanations and documents helps with the preparation of the verification reports. A foreign company should try to cooperate as fully as possible with such post-verification requests. A failure to do so creates a serious risk that the staff may draft the verification report in a way unfavourable to the company.

Once the verification report has been drafted, the Commerce Department often gives a copy of the draft to the lawyers for the foreign company. The official purpose of this review is to check for confidential information that should be excluded from the non-confidential version of the verification report. It is sometimes possible, however, to suggest changes in the text of the report to the Commerce Department staff. If the Commerce Department staff members have misunderstood an important point from the verification, or have left out an important topic, it is sometimes possible to persuade them to make the corrections before issuing the final version of the report. Commerce Department policy on such changes has become more strict in recent years - officially, no substantive changes are to be made to the draft verification reports - but, depending on the particular staff member, it is sometimes still possible to suggest changes.

It is usually possible for the lawyers to send a copy of the draft report to the foreign company for review. However, the Commerce Department generally gives the lawyers only 24 hours to make any comments, so the company therefore has at most one business day to review the draft and send comments back to the lawyers. If the company wishes to comment on the draft report, it is important to prepare in advance. The draft reports are often 40 to 60 pages long, so it is necessary to have staff with a thorough knowledge of English ready to review the report; there is usually no time for translations.

Of course, once the final version of the report is officially issued, the foreign company still has an opportunity to comment. One of the principal purposes of the pre-hearing and post-hearing briefs is to provide the parties with a chance to comment on the verification reports and clarify any points with which they disagree. Companies therefore frequently prepare translations of the verification reports that can be circulated to the company's accountants (if they do not read English very well). The time available for translation and review is sometimes quite limited. It is not unusual for the Commerce Department to finish the verification reports only days before the pre-hearing briefs are due. Sometimes the verification reports are delayed until after the hearing itself. In such situations, however, the Commerce Department usually accepts written comments about the verification reports after the due dates for the pre-hearing and post-hearing briefs.

Source: Business Guide to Trade Remedies in the United States: Anti-dumping, countervailing and safeguards legislation practices and procedures