USTR Seeks Comments on China's WTO Panel Request on Sawblades/Shrimp AD Zeroing

November 8, 2011 by Barbara Chaves|Other U.S.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced that China has requested a World Trade Organization dispute settlement panel on the International Trade Administration's use of “zeroing” in its antidumping less than fair value (LTFV) final determinations and orders for certain frozen and canned warmwater shrimp from China and for diamond sawblades and parts thereof from China.

Comments are due by December 7, 2011.

China Alleges U.S. Use of AD “Zeroing” Inconsistent with WTO Obligations

In its request for the establishment of a panel, China alleges that ITA improperly calculated margins of dumping by “‘zeroing” so-called “negative dumping margins” in its 2004 LTFV final determination and 2005 amended final determination and order for certain frozen and canned warmwater shrimp from China and in its 2006 LTFV AD determination, amended determination, and order for diamond sawblades and parts thereof from China.

Based on the use of zeroing, China alleges that the final AD determinations and orders are inconsistent with Article 2.4.2 of the Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994.

ITA Announced in 2006 It Would no Longer Use Zeroing in Certain Instances

USTR states that on March 6, 2006, the ITA announced that it would no longer use “zeroing” when making average-to-average comparisons in an AD investigation.

WTO Report Expected 9 Months After Panel Established

Once a panel is established, it will hold its meetings in Geneva, Switzerland, and would be expected to issue a report on its findings and recommendations within nine months.

(Note that regarding sawbaldes, the ITA recently revoked the AD duty order on diamond sawblades and parts from Korea effective October 24, 2011, but the Court of International Trade (CIT) subsequently granted an injunction to delay liquidation of entries of Korean diamond saw blades due to irreversible damage caused by the Korean entries. See ITT’s Online Archives 11102822 and 11110708 for summaries.

Regarding diamond sawblades from China, the CIT agreed with ITA in August 2011 that it did not need to reconsider its use of zeroing in the investigation, because its final AD duty rate determination pre-dated ITA’s policy change on zeroing. However, CIT did recently remand the case back to ITA to consider its steel valuation and separate rate decisions. See ITT’s Online Archives 11082423 and 11110803 for summaries.)

(See ITT’s Online Archives 11081908 for summary of USTR seeking comment on China’s request for consultations.)

(FR Pub 11/07/11, Dispute No. WTO/DS422)

USTR contact - Jared Wessel (202) 395-3150