Australian Anti-dumping Practice and Potential

Changes

Overview of Australian AD System

WTO consistent: Anti-Dumping Agreement Subsidies Agreement

Transparent:published laws and regulations

Customs Act 1901 Customs Tariff (Anti-Dumping) Act 1975

open procedurespublic record

Australia’s AD system is administered by the Australian Customs Service

Overview of Australian AD System (cont)

Judicial and merits review are available

Australia does not have a public interest test but has a policy of always applying the lesser duty rule.

Minister decides whether to impose measures based on CEO report

Trade Measures Branch

Australia’s legislation is administered by Trade Measures Branch in Customs

Carry out investigations for the CEO of Customs to report to the Minister for Justice and Customs

CEO decides whether to initiate a case

The Process - Pre-Investigation

Pre-lodgement- advice available to any party on what is required in an application (initial cases, reviews, accelerated reviews and continuation enquiries

-pre-lodgement documentation check

Application received by Customs-the application properly documented

-there sufficient industry support; and -there appear to be reasonable grounds for investigation

-20

0

Submissions in response to Statement of Essential facts due - review facts in light of issues raised in submissions- finalise report and calculate measures, if any

0Initiation of investigation- verification visits to Australian industry- injury analysis- verification visits to importers/end users

Submissions in response to application due- verification visits to exporters to assess normal values & export prices- determine dumping margins- injury and causal link - are provisional measures warranted?

40

60+Provisional measures (securities)may be imposed from this point- normal value, export price and dumping margin calculations confirmed - preparation of the statement of essential facts

110Statement of Essential Facts - commence drafting final report

130

155REPORT TO MINISTER

The Process - Investigation

Joint Study

In 2006, Customs and Australia’s industry department undertook a Joint Study into administrative aspects of Australia’s anti-dumping system.

The study addressed the following key issues:-access to the system (cost & complexity);-consistency and transparency in decision-making; and-the public file system and meaningful summaries of confidential information.

Joint study report made 22 recommendations.

Joint Study - continued

Some of the main changes arising out of the Joint Study were:

• The introduction of step-by-step, plain English, easy to follow guidelines to assist applicants, particularly small and medium sized enterprises, complete applications under the anti-dumping system.

• The replacement of the five day draft application assessment with an optional 10 working day review that considers whether an application is properly documented.

Joint Study - continued

•The appointment of an ‘SME officer’.

•New guidelines for assessing applications to promote consistency

•To improve transparency - deletions from public file documents must be followed by a [bracketed] summary of the information deleted.

•Customs will be making public file records available to interested parties on its website.

The Joint Study report and full list of recommendations can be found at the Australian Customs website at www.customs.gov.au

       

Review of AD System

The Australian government has announced that there will be a policy review of Australia’s anti-dumping system.

The terms of reference and timing of the review have not yet been announced.