News Release
Pascal Lamy
No. 166/04
November 22, 2004
NOVEMBER 20TH, US ANTI-DUMPING:
PASCAL LAMY WELCOMES US CONGRESS' VOTE TO REPEAL THE US 1916 ANTI-DUMPING ACT
The United States’ Congress has adopted the repeal of the
1916 Anti-Dumping Act, which was condemned by the WTO in September 2000. This
Act provided remedies to dumping in the form of fines, imprisonment and treble
damages none of which is permitted by WTO rules. Since the matter was referred
to the WTO in June 1998, 4 complaints were brought against EU companies involving
large litigation costs and forcing them to settle on the claims regardless of
the merits of the complaints. Congress’ vote comes more than 4 years after the
condemnation of this law by the WTO and nearly 3 years after the expiry of the
time period within which the US was required to act. The repeal will become effective
once the President has signed the bill.
EU Trade Commissioner
Pascal Lamy said: “I am glad to see that in my last hours as Trade Commissioner
we have managed to solve another trade dispute with the US. Congress’ vote is
good news for multilateralism and for the rule of law in international trade and
I want to thank leaders in Congress and Bob Zoellick for that.”
He added: “I am satisfied that the EU patient but firm approach has been rewarded
after four years of waiting. I hope that the US President will now sign this bill
into law and we can put to bed to a story which lasted for too long.”
Background
The US 1916 Anti-Dumping Act provided for damages to the complainant in an anti-dumping
case equivalent to three 3 the damage suffered, fines up to US $5,000 or imprisonment
up to 1 year.
Following actions by the EU and Japan, in September 2000 the WTO condemned this
Act for allowing sanctions against dumping not allowed under the WTO agreements.
The Anti-Dumping Agreement limits action against dumping to the imposition of
anti-dumping duties or minimum import prices. As a result of this condemnation,
the US had to repeal its legislation.
The EU made all efforts to accommodate the US difficulty to comply with the WTO
decision. The period of time within which the US was to repeal the Act was extended
for 5 months (from July to December 2001).The EU requested, in January 2002, the
authorization to apply retaliatory measures, but it subsequently suspended the
this procedure for more than a year-and-a-half in anticipation that Congress would
act and retaliation would be unnecessary.
The persisting inaction of the US and the initiation of new cases against EU companies
triggered the EU to re-activate the arbitration in September 2003. In February
2004, WTO arbitrators accepted the EU request to be allowed
to impose countermeasures that would mirror the US 1916 Anti-Dumping Act 1916.
In parallel to the reactivation of the arbitration, the Council adopted on 15
December 2003 a
Regulation to provide relief to the EU companies facing claims based on the
1916 Anti-Dumping Act. This Regulation entered into force on 9 January 2004 and
seeks to neutralize the effects of the 1916 Anti-Dumping Act in the EU. It prohibits
the recognition and enforcement in the EU of court or administrative decisions
based on the 1916 Anti-Dumping Act. It also allows EU companies or individuals
to counter-sue the US plaintiff in order to recover any outlays, costs, damages
and expenses caused by the application of the Anti-Dumping Act of 1916.
For more information:
http://www.wto.org/
http://europa.eu.int/comm/trade
