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Although we have tried to use plain English content on the site, you may come across specialist terms and acronyms. Find out what they mean in our glossary of terms.
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Dumping is the export of a product at a lower price than the product’s “normal value”, i.e. the price normally charged on the producing country’s market.
The WTO’s Agreement on Antidumping provides for the application of antidumping duties when an investigation has established that goods are being dumped and that they are causing or threaten to cause material injury to a domestic industry. The duty is designed to offset the advantage afforded through dumping.
The Antidumping Agreement provides detailed rules on the standards WTO Members must meet in making a dumping determination, as well as determining injury. It sets down rules on how investigations should be carried out, how evidence is to be gathered, as well as how and for how long antidumping duties should be applied. The Agreement is designed to avoid the abuse of antidumping for protectionist purposes.
Recent years have seen an increase in the frequency with which antidumping duties are applied by developing nations. Some use these statistics to support their argument that the Antidumping Agreement has been misinterpreted and abused for protectionist purposes.
When launching the Doha Round in 2001 [external link], WTO Ministers mandated negotiations aimed at “clarifying and improving disciplines” under the Antidumping Agreement (as well as the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures – see below).
When they met in Hong Kong in December 2005 [external link], WTO Ministers took stock of progress in that negotiation. Proposals were under consideration for improving the Antidumping Agreement across a range of issue areas, including weighing the public interest – as well as industry interest – in determining injury; applying a lesser duty than the margin of dumping; improving transparency and due process; enhanced rules for interim and sunset reviews of antidumping duties; and better addressing circumvention of antidumping duties.
After having debated the core issues at length since 2001, the Membership is ready to enter the final stage of negotiations. This final stage will be on the basis of draft negotiating text prepared by the Chair of the Rules Negotiating Group.
New Zealand ’s core interest in the negotiation is to ensure that any changes to the Antidumping Agreement reflect a balance between avoiding abuse of dumping provisions by tightening disciplines and enhancing transparency, while also allowing countries the ability to respond appropriately to injurious imports.
