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 Introduction
- Anti-Dumping Actions
If a company exports a product at a price lower than the price it normally charges on its own home market, it is said to be “dumping” the product. Is this unfair competition? Opinions differ, but many governments take action against dumping in order to defend their domestic industries. The WTO agreement does not pass judgment. Its focus is on how governments can or cannot react to dumping — it disciplines anti-dumping actions, and it is often called the Anti-Dumping Agreement. This focus only on the reaction to dumping contrasts with the approach of the Subsidies and Countervailing Measures Agreement.
The legal definitions are more precise, but broadly speaking the WTO agreement allows governments to act against dumping where there is genuine (“material”) injury to the competing domestic industry. In order to do that the government has to be able to show that dumping is taking place, calculate the extent of dumping (how much lower the export price is compared to the exporter’s home market price), and show that the dumping is causing injury. More...
- Safeguards: Emergency Protection from Imports
A WTO member may restrict imports of a product temporarily (take “safeguard” actions) if its domestic industry is injured or threatened with injury caused by a surge in imports. Here, the injury has to be serious. Safeguard measures were always available under GATT (Article 19). However, they were infrequently used, some governments preferring to protect their domestic industries through “grey area” measures — using bilateral negotiations outside GATT’s auspices they persuaded exporting countries to restrain exports “voluntarily” or to agree to other means of sharing markets. Agreements of this kind were reached for a wide range of products: automobiles, steel, and semiconductors, for example. More...
- Subsidies and Countervailing Measures
This agreement does two things: it disciplines the use of subsidies, and it regulates the actions countries can take to counter the effects of subsidies. It says a country can use the WTO’s dispute settlement procedure to seek the withdrawal of the subsidy or the removal of its adverse effects. Or the country can launch its own investigation and ultimately charge extra duty (known as “countervailing duty”) on subsidized imports that are found to be hurting domestic producers.
Role of the CD/WTO
While the Central Department for International Trade Policies deals with trade remedies investigations, the CD/WTO Rules Department, working with the Legal Research and Analysis Department, focuses on the following issues related to trade remedies:
- Coordinating the Egyptian negotiating position on WTO rules negotiations, which relate to clarifying and improving the anti-dumping and subsidies/countervailing duties agreements, and clarifying and improving disciplines and procedures under the existing WTO provisions applying to regional trade agreements.
- Coordinating the Egyptian negotiating position to clarify and improve the Dispute Settlement Understanding.
- Preparing the Egyptian position and documentation in semi-annual meetings of the Anti-Dumping, Safeguards, and Subsidies/Countervailing Duty committees, as well as the Ad Hoc Committee.
- Making sure that Egypt is consistent with its commitments in WTO trade remedies agreements to avoid or defend any dispute against Egypt in this regard.
- Making sure that WTO Members are also compliant with their trade remedies commitments in WTO.
- Participating in public awareness programs related to international trade remedies and dispute settlement.
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You can access more information about trade remedies through the following links |
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