The Hindu Business Line : Decline in anti-dumping measures: WTO

THE world witnessed a drastic decline in trade-defence measures in the form of imposition of anti-dumping duties by members of the World Trade Organisation during the first half of the current year, including India, which in the recent past had imposed the largest number of anti-dumping probes.

In its report on anti-dumping measures released in Geneva on November 1, WTO Secretariat reported that during January-June , 18 WTO members imposed 52 new final anti-dumping measures against exports from 24 countries or customs territories.

This represents a significant decline from the 114 measures during the corresponding period of 2003.

Nineteen of the new measures were from developed countries, up from the 7 measures they imposed in the first half of 2003.

The European Community, India and the US imposed the most - six each during the first semester of 2004.

However, for India, this is a significant decline from the 21 measures it imposed during the corresponding period of 2003; but it is an increase for the EC and US from one and three measures respectively.

Canada was second in the number of final measures imposed with five followed by China, Peru and Turkey four each.

Exports from China were once more the subject of the largest number of new final measures 16, down slightly from 18 measures imposed during the first semester of 2003.

Korea, Malaysia, Russia and Thailand were distant seconds with three measures each on their exports.

Nineteen new final measures were on products in the base metals sector including iron, steel and aluminium.

Chemicals sector was second most affected with 12 and the minerals sector was third with five measures.

India imposed five of its six new measures on products in the chemical sector while China imposed all four on products in the minerals sector. The EC imposed three new measures on chemical products, two on live animals/animal products sector and one on a textile product.

On new initiation, 16 WTO Members initiated 101 anti-dumping investigations against exports from 23 different countries or customs territories.

This is slightly more than the 98 investigations initiated in the first half of 2003, but a larger number of members (22) initiated those 98 investigations.

Developed countries reported 40 of the 101 initiations of 2004. The US initiated the most investigations with 21, up from 16 it had initiated during the first semester of 2003.

The EC and Turkey had the second highest number of initiations during the first semester of 2004 with 13 each. China reported 11 initiations while other members reported seven or a fewer initiations each.

As much as 20 investigations initiated during the first semester of 2004 involved products in the base metals sector followed by chemicals and plastics (18 initiations each) and by textiles (15 probes).

The US initiated seven of its 21 investigations on live animals/animal products sector, five in the base metals sector and four in the plastics sector.

The EC initiated four of its 13 investigations on textile products and three each on products in the plastics and base metals sectors. Turkey initiated five of its 13 investigations on plastics and five on textile products.