The Agreement stipulates that Member States must immediately and in detail inform the Committee on Anti-Dumping Practices of all provisional and definitive anti-dumping measures. They are also required to report twice a year on all investigations. When disputes arise, members are encouraged to consult with each other. You can also use the WTO dispute resolution procedure. As a result, the ITC opened an investigation and concluded that the Japanese companies had indeed disposed of the FPD screens, causing property damage to the US companies. The ITC recommended an anti-dumping duty of 62.5% on fpd screens imported from Japan. In the United States, the International Trade Commission (ITC) – an independent government agency – is responsible for imposing anti-dumping duties. Their actions are based on the recommendations they receive from the United States. Ministry of Commerce and Investigations of the ITC and/or the Ministry of Commerce. Measures against dumping (sales at an unduly low price) Subsidies and special countervailing duties to offset subsidies Emergency measures temporarily limiting imports to protect domestic industries.
All WTO Members are required to align their anti-dumping rules with the Anti-Dumping Agreement and to notify this legislation to the Committee on Anti-Dumping Practices. Although the Committee does not approve or reject any of The Laws of Members, they are reviewed by the Committee, where it asks questions of Members and discusses the consistency of the implementation of the requirements of the Convention by a particular Member in its national legislation. In addition, members are required to inform the Committee twice a year of all anti-dumping investigations, measures and measures. The Committee has adopted a standardized format for such notifications, which are considered by the Committee. Finally, members are required to inform the Committee without delay of the provisional and definitive anti-dumping measures initiated, containing in their notification certain minimum information required by the guidelines approved by the Committee. Such notifications shall also be submitted to the Committee for its consideration. Although the intention of anti-dumping duties is to save domestic jobs, these duties can also lead to higher prices for domestic consumers. And in the long run, anti-dumping duties can reduce international competition from domestic companies producing like products. Anti-dumping measures are unilateral remedies and include measures such as the imposition of anti-dumping duties on the dumped product(s). The Government of the United States (or the government of an importing country) may apply the anti-dumping measure after an in-depth investigation has established beyond any doubt that the product is actually being dumped in that country.
This measure is also important because sales of the dumped product result in losses to the domestic or local industry producing a like product. An anti-dumping duty is a protectionist duty that a national government imposes on foreign imports that it considers to be below their fair market value. Dumping is a process by which an enterprise executes a product at a price significantly lower than the price it normally charges in its domestic (or domestic) market. The imposition of the anti-dumping duty has advantages and disadvantages. The GATT 1994 establishes a number of basic principles applicable to trade between WTO Members, including the most-favoured-nation principle. It also requires that imported goods are not subject to internal charges or other changes in excess of the duties levied on domestic goods and that imported goods are otherwise treated less favourably than domestic goods under national laws, regulations and administrative provisions, and lays down rules on quantitative restrictions, import fees and formalities – and customs value. WTO members have also agreed to establish lists of bound tariffs. On the other hand, Article VI of the GATT 1994 expressly permits the imposition of a specific anti-dumping duty on imports from a given source in excess of bound rates where the dumping causes or threatens to cause injury to a domestic industry or materially delays the establishment of a domestic industry. The Agreement implementing Article VI of the GATT 1994, commonly referred to as the Anti-Dumping Agreement, contains a further elaboration of the basic principles for the investigation, determination and application of anti-dumping duties set out in Article VI itself. The agreement establishes criteria for assessing the occurrence or risk of material injury and the factors to be taken into account in determining the impact of imports on the domestic industry. In the event of introduction, a safeguard measure should be applied only to the extent necessary to prevent or remedy material injury and to assist the industry concerned in adapting. Where quantitative restrictions (quotas) are introduced, they should not, as a general rule, reduce import volumes below the annual average of the last three representative years for which statistics are available, unless it is clearly justified that a different level is necessary to prevent or remedy material injury.
An increase in imports justifying safeguard measures may be a real increase in imports (absolute increase); or it may be an increase in the share of imports from a declining market, even if the volume of imports has not increased (relative increase). The agreement establishes rules for the calculation of dumping margins. Normally, the agreement provides either for a comparison of the weighted average normal value with the weighted average of all comparable export prices or for a comparison of the normal value and the export price between transactions (Article 2(4)(2)). A different basis of comparison may be used where there is targeted dumping, i.e. where there is an export price structure that differs significantly from one buyer, region or period to another. In this case, where the investigating authorities demonstrate why these differences cannot be taken into account in comparisons of the weighted average with the weighted average or from one transaction to another, the weighted average normal value may be compared with the export prices of each transaction. One of the most complex issues in anti-dumping investigations is whether or not sales in the exporting country`s market take place in the ordinary course of trade. One of the bases on which countries can determine that sales are not made in the ordinary course of trade is when sales in the exporter`s domestic market are below cost. The Agreement sets out the specific circumstances in which domestic sales at prices below the cost of production may be considered not to have been made in the ordinary course of trade` and therefore cannot be taken into account in the determination of normal value (Article 2). These sales must be made at prices below fixed and variable unit costs plus administrative, selling and general costs, they must be made within a longer period (usually one year, but in no case less than six months) and they must be made in significant quantities. (a) the weighted average selling price is less than the weighted average cost; (b) 20% of volume sales were below cost.
Finally, sales below costs may be ignored for the purpose of establishing normal value only if they do not cover the costs within a reasonable period of time. If sales are below the cost of production but above the weighted average costs during the IP, the agreement provides that they cover the costs within a reasonable period of time. The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international organization that deals with the rules of trade between nations. The WTO also applies a number of international trade rules, including international regulation of anti-dumping measures. The WTO does not intervene in the activities of dumped companies. In general, the WTO Agreement allows governments to take action against dumping “if it causes or threatens to cause material injury to an industry established in the territory of a Party or materially delays the establishment of a domestic industry.” There have been cases where some governments have reacted aggressively to the dumping of foreign companies with goods into their territory by imposing punitive tariffs on those products. In such cases, the WTO may intervene to assess whether such measures are justified or whether they violate the WTO`s free market principle. Article 12 lays down detailed requirements for the publication of the initiation of investigations by investigating authorities, provisional and definitive findings and companies. The public notice discloses non-confidential information concerning the parties, the product, the margins of dumping, the facts revealed during the investigation and the reasons for the authorities` findings, including the reasons for accepting and rejecting the relevant arguments or claims of the exporters or importers. These public notice requirements are intended to increase the transparency of findings, in the hope that this will increase the extent to which conclusions are based on sound facts and arguments. If the USITC`s finding is upheld, the Secretary of Commerce issues an anti-dumping order (as part of a dumping investigation) or a countervailing duty order (as part of a subsidy investigation), which is enforced by the U.S. Customs Service.
If the USITC`s conclusion is negative, no anti-dumping or countervailing orders will be issued. If the USITC finds that they are not relevant, the investigation into these imports is terminated. Where a positive conclusion is based on injury to a regional industry, the Agreement requires investigating authorities to limit customs duties on goods shipped for final consumption in the region concerned, where constitutionally possible. .