MARAN URGES
WTO TO ADDRESS CONCERNS OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES ON ANTI-DUMPING
AND SUBSIDIES AGREEMENTS
NATIONAL
SEMINAR ON ANTI-DUMPING AND SUBSIDY ISSUES INAUGURATED
Shri
Murasoli Maran, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, has
urged the World Trade Organisation (WTO) member countries to favourably
consider the concerns of developing countries especially with
regard to the Anti-Dumping and Subsidies Agreements. "Only then
can a level playing field be created in the arena of international
trade – else, it will remain a power dominated multilateral trading
system", the Minister said here today, while inaugurating a two-day
National Seminar on Anti-Dumping and Subsidy Issues, which has
been organised by the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce
and Industry. Shri Dipak Chatterjee, Commerce Secretary, Shri
L.V. Saptharishi, Additional Secretary & Director General
of Anti-Dumping (DGAD), and Shri S.N. Menon, Additional Secretary,
Ministry of commerce & Industry were present at the session
along with a host of national and international participants.
With little over a year left before the next Ministerial Conference
of the WTO, Shri Maran emphasised the urgent need at this juncture
to identify India’s core interest on issues relating to Anti-Dumping
and Subsidy Agreements and said that the National Seminar was
part of this process of broad-based internal consultations which
would enable the country to define its position with clarity,
in keeping with the overall national interest.
Shri
Maran indicated that India’s main implementation concerns, relating
to countervailing duty investigation procedures and operationalising
the Special & Differential Treatment provisions under the
Anti-Dumping Agreement for developing countries were two such
issues which had to be deliberated upon and decided in a time-bound
manner. In respect of countervailing duty investigations, India
had submitted a detailed proposal, answered nearly 50 questions
and was hopeful of a satisfactory resolution of the concerned
issues by the mandated date of 31st July, 2002, Shri
Maran said, but added that "much to our consternation, the developed
countries have not shown any degree of reasonableness on this
proposal and we may be forced to take up these concerns directly
to the Negotiating Group on Rules of the WTO". He said that a
detailed submission had also been made for operationalising the
Special & Differential Treatment provision in the Anti-Dumping
Agreement and the WTO Anti-Dumping Committee was expected to finalise
its recommendation on this by the year end.
Shri
Saptharishi, in his address, said that though India was one of
the largest user of the anti-dumping instrument, none of India’s
decisions had ever been quashed by the Supreme Court of India
and no grievances regarding India’s decisions had been taken to
the WTO forum either, underlining the transparency and fairness
of the proceedings. "We are looking at these issues not from a
protectionist approach but from the approach of removing trade
distortions in the ongoing globalisation process", he said. Shri
Menon in his opening address highlighted the fact that the ongoing
negotiations consisted of two phases, one wherein countries would
identify the issues and in the second phase, the negotiations
would take place on these issues.
Shri
Maran also referred in his address to the concerns raised by many
countries on the increasing resort to anti-dumping measures especially
by non-traditional users including India, Argentina, South Africa,
Mexico etc., with some even going to the extent of questioning
the need for Anti Dumping as the trade remedy instrument and said:
"Let me emphatically state that we share the wide spread concern
against the misuse of Anti-Dumping Agreement for protectionist
purposes. A distinction however needs to be made between the genuine
use of Anti-Dumping Agreement for protecting the domestic industry
from injurious dumping and misuse of the Agreement for unjustified
protection even when the evidence of dumping and causal injury
to the domestic industry is at best tenuous. The findings of various
WTO panels and the Appellate Body in disputes involving anti-dumping
issues, points towards misuse of the Agreement by the traditional
users of Anti-Dumping measures. No questions are being raised
by learned academics on this aspect of Anti-Dumping".
Underlining
the need for prompt compliance with WTO panel rulings, Shri Maran
cited two examples of India’s experience -- namely, European Commission’s
(EC) resort to anti-dumping action on imports of bedlinen from
India since 1994 and the imposition by US of anti-dumping duty
on imports of steel plates by SAIL. In the bedlinen case, the
WTO’s Dispute Settlement Panel and the Appellate Body in a stinging
incitement ruled that EC had not complied with its WTO obligations
during the investigations. As part of the compliance of Appellate
Body’s findings, the EC instead of removing the duty on bedlinen,
merely suspended the duty and has undertaken a partial interim
review on the same product. "The irony cannot be missed by anyone.
While it was India which won the dispute, our exporters continue
to suffer while those from Pakistan and Egypt, which were also
subjected to anti-dumping action initially, have subsequently
been let off for considerations which cannot be justified on the
basis of the Anti-Dumping Agreement", Shri Maran observed. Expressing
concern at attempts made by certain countries to push issues of
interest to developing countries for being addressed towards the
end of negotiations on rules, Shri Maran quoted Paul Krugman who
had said "anyone who has tried to make sense of international
trade negotiations has realised that they are a game scored according
to mercantilist rules, in which an increase in exports is a victory
and in increase in imports is a defeat", The share of developing
country in international trade have not shown any appreciable
increase over the past years and this, in part, was due to the
imposition of anti-dumping and countervailing measures against
imports originating in developing countries, Shri Maran said.
BACKGROUND
The
Seminar has been organised in the context of the ongoing WTO negotiations
on Anti-Dumping and Subsidies Agreements. These negotiations are
currently being undertaken in the WTO Negotiating Group on Rules
(NG Rules). Four meeting of the Negotiating Group are being held
in the year 2002. While two meeting have already been held on
6-8 May 2002 and 8-10 July 2002, the remaining two meeting of
WTO NG Rules are scheduled to be held on 16-18 October 2002 and
25-27 November 2002. The negotiations on WTO Rules afford an opportunity
to address issues arising out of anti-dumping and countervailing
duty action against the country’s exports by seeking possible
amendments in some of the provisions of the two Agreements. At
the same time, it would need to be ensured that the flexibility
available to protect the domestic industry from injurious dumping
is not curtailed.
