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United States – Certain Methodologies and Their Application to Anti-Dumping Proceedings Involving China: Nails in the Coffin of Unfair Dumping Margin Calculation Methodologies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2019

THOMAS J. PRUSA*
Affiliation:
Rutgers University and NBER, USA
EDWIN A. VERMULST*
Affiliation:
VVGB, Belgium

Abstract

The WTO Appellate Body report United States – Certain Methodologies and Their Application to Anti-Dumping Proceedings Involving China is yet another in a long line of disputes involving US Department of Commerce's dumping margin calculation methodologies. The AB ruled against the United States on three important aspects: (1) the use of the Nails test to rationalize the exceptional method in Article 2.4.2 of the Anti-Dumping Agreement so as to justify using the weighted average-to-transaction methodology in dumping margin calculations; (2) the treatment of multiple companies in a non-market economy as a single NME-wide entity; and (3) the USDOC's policy of using adverse facts available for such an entity. Yet, some aspects of the AB's decision – most notably affirming the use of average prices – significantly weaken Article 2.4.2's pattern requirement and potentially open the door to greater use of the exceptional method.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Thomas J. Prusa and Edwin A. Vermulst 2019 

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Footnotes

The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and all omissions and errors are also those of the authors. We would like to thank Roberta Piermartini, Dukgeun Ahn, and Petros Mavroidis for their comments and perspectives on the GATT/WTO history related to Article 2.4.2 and the zeroing issue.

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