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Minutes

PBEC Ad Hoc Working Committee on Anti-Dumping

Saturday, April 7, 2001
Tokyo, Japan

Mrs. Alicia Romo Roman, Chairman (Chile)
Acting Chair: Enrique Romo (Chile)

  1. Discussion of Draft minutes from November 11, 2000, Singapore Working Committee Meeting

    1. Minutes distributed in advance of the Tokyo of the Singapore meeting were not reflected of the core issues discussed. A copy of the summary of the discussion prepared by E. Romo was distributed at the meeting. In the main the discussion focused on the target issues for the committee:

      1. Abusive practice of AD on the rise and can represent a serious threat to free trade
      2. Not all use of Ad is unjustified. WTO agreement is clear enough
      3. The problem may be due to lack of experience in the use of AD legislation, as well as wrong interpretation of rules, or simply veiled protectionism
      4. Plaintiff governments act as prosecutor and judge. No balance
      5. Abusive use of AD is costly and damaging.

    2. The committee agreed to:

      1. Present a more comprehensive picture of the dimensions and complexities of the situation
      2. Develop a set of recommendations
      3. Illustrate the costly nature of misapplication of AD
      4. Prepare a set of recommendations for PBEC Board to be forwarded to WTO.

  2. Discussion of Committee's Program of Work

    1. At Tokyo meeting three papers were presented:

      1. One on the Canadian experience with AD (Gord Cummings)
      2. One on a thorough analysis of AD problems (Graham Painter, New Zealand)
      3. One on the costs to companies (Pedro Reus, Chile).

      In addition , Mr. Michio Mizoguchi (Japan) presented some recommendations for the committee.

    2. The discussion focused on the possibility of preparing a paper to integrate all these aspect as a backgrounder to the committee's recommendations. There was no consensus on this point. The committee then agreed to prepare some recommendations that could be taken to the Board, emphasizing the need to:

      1. Expedite the review process at WTO
      2. Adopt measures to deal with frivolous cases
      3. Balance the one sided adversary situation between plaintiff and accused
      4. Eliminate cost of production application to agricultural commodities

  3. Membership

    1. The future of the committee will depend on new membership. Those in attendance were asked to:
      1. Submit names of people willing to work on a long-term basis
      2. Introduced FTA's as an area for discussion to increase interest in the work of the committee
      3. Seek more participation from other member economies
Meeting adjourned 12:28 p.m.

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Last Modified: 16 July 2001