EU to Challenge US Practice of Zeroing Negative Dumping Margins at WTO
The European Union (EU) is preparing to file a complaint at the World Trade Organization over the United States' practice of calculating dumping margins by zeroing negative dumping margins. The practice of setting negative dumping margins to zero typically increases the dumping margin calculated by the Commerce Department.
In a case filed by India against the EU involving bed-linen from India, the WTO's Appellate Body found that the practice of zeroing was a violation of the WTO Antidumping Agreement. See European Communities -- Antidumping Duties on Imports of Cotton-Type Bed Linen from India, WT/DS/141/AB/R (Mar. 1, 2001). The EU no longer uses the zeroing method in its dumping calculations and now claims that the US practice is inconsistent with the WTO Appellate Body's decision on this issue.
Many respondents in US antidumping investigations have unsuccessfully argued that the Commerce Department's practicing of zeroing violates US and international law. However, all challenges brought against this practice have been rejected by the Commerce Department and the US Courts. Indeed, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC), the highest US to render an opinion on this issue, recently affirmed the Commerce Department's practice of zeroing in The Timkin Co. v. United States, Slip. Op. 03-1098 (Fed. Cir. 2004). In Timkin, the CAFC found that "CommerceÂs zeroing practice is a reasonable interpretation of the statutory language" and that "Commerce's methodology for calculating dumping margins makes practical sense." Moreover, the CAFC held that the Appellate Body's decision in Bed Linen from India was not binding.
|posted by Douglas N. Jacobson| Permalink 
