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‘Back-to-back anti-dumping investigations should be curtailed’

Agencies - New Delhi

India has asked the world Trade Organisation (WTO) to forge clear cut guidelines on initiating anti-dumping proceedings for checking the arbitrary practices by the member countries.

India, a victim of back-to-back anti-dumping investigation, has suggested to the World Trade Organisation that there should be a gap of a year between two complaints when result of previous investigation was found negative.

In its second submission on anti-dumping agreement, which is being re-looked at following the Doha round of negotiations, India has said that anti-dumping investigation should not be initiated on a product or a broader category of a product when earlier complaint to anti-dumping authority by the same member was negative.

To check dumping of products that are being produced by the small sector, India has said that as these industries are fragmented, they find it difficult to initiate anti-dumping investigation. The rules for initiating investigation should be relaxed and instead of requirement of express support of 25 per cent of the total industrial production, statistical sampling should be allowed.

The sampling may make it possible to meet the requirement of 50 per cent support of the industry, India’s submission, which was presented on October 16 this year, India has said.

India has also suggested that for slapping anti-dumping duties clear guidelines should be laid down as authorities pick and choose the options that result in highest duties.

For anti-dumping investigation, the profit on a product that is exported should be calculated on the basis of profit normally realised by other exporters or producers on sales of same product.

In many cases, India had to suffer as profit rates used for calculating the value of a product were found to be unreasonable.

To decide on the price undercutting of domestic producers, there should be more transparency and clear-cut guidelines, India has said.

A mechanism should be worked out so that the interested parties can know on what basis prices of domestic producers have been worked out as cost and pricing data of a company is confidential.

For calculating the undercutting margins data from most efficient domestic producers could be considered as it was not possible to take data from all the producers into consideration, India has suggested.

It has also said that 15 parameters for making an objective assessment of injury to domestic industry by imports should be elaborated.

In some countries when a decision of anti-dumping authorities is overturned by the judiciary, the benefits accrues only to the appellants. This should be reviewed and all exporters should benefit as from the start the investigation was flawed.

India has also suggested clear guidelines specifying the circumstances may reject relevant information on the plea that what it had asked for was not supplied in time.

“This is not the end. We will submit more such proposals if need arises,” joint secretary in the ministry of commerce, Mr V S Seshadri said that at a CII-organised seminar on anti-dumping.