TRADE FINANCE TALKS
6.4
Anti-dumping Agreements – UK prepares to impose its own duties on foreign exporters A heavy burden is left upon both the UK government and the private sector as they comply with WTO rules in anti-dumping cases to impose duties on foreign exporters that are undercutting UK manufacturers.
SARAH HURST Founder Castle Knight
The UK will be responsible for its own trade remedies investigations when the Brexit transition period ends on December 31, taking over this function from the European Commission. This is an expensive burden both for government and the private sector, as an enormous amount of data must be gathered over a period of up to a year to comply with WTO rules in anti-dumping and antisubsidy cases. The purpose is to impose duties on foreign exporters that are undercutting UK manufacturers. The trade remedies cases should be overseen by a new public body called the Trade Remedies Authority, but that was not established as planned last year because the Trade Bill was never passed. The government is now reintroducing an amended Trade Bill and the TRA may soon come into existence. In the meantime the cases are being
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dealt with by the Trade Remedies Investigations Directorate (TRID) of the Department for International Trade. Until the end of the transition period the UK still implements all EU trade remedies measures, but the TRID has already started to review about 43 EU measures that the government intends to keep after this year. The first reviews are being conducted for cases on welded pipes and tubes from Russia, Belarus and China, and rainbow trout from Turkey. Any UK companies that produce welded pipes and tubes or breed rainbow trout could participate in the cases, as well as those that import them or have some other connection to the products.
WHAT IS ANTI-DUMPING? If a company exports a product at a price lower than the price it normally charges on its own home market, it is said to be “dumping” the product. The WTO Agreement does not regulate the actions of companies engaged in “dumping”. Its focus is on how governments can or cannot react to dumping — it disciplines anti-dumping actions, and it is often called the “Anti-dumping Agreement”. – Source: WTO
UK PROCESS QUESTIONED Companies wanting to maintain tradefinanceglobal.com
