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Trade Remedies

The WTO Rules negotiations were launched in 2001 as part of the Doha Development Agenda. The Rules negotiations encompass antidumping and horizontal subsidies, as well as fish subsidies.

At the outset of the Doha Round, WTO Members agreed that the antidumping and subsidies negotiations would be aimed at clarifying and improving the disciplines under the Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of the GATT 1994 (the Antidumping Agreement) and the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (the Subsidies Agreement), while maintaining the basic concepts, principles and effectiveness of these agreements. The United States is committed to maintaining strong and effective antidumping and subsidy rules.

Antidumping

There is a broad range of views among Members regarding support for or opposition to the antidumping remedy. The proposed changes to the Antidumping Agreement made by the United States do not alter the basic concepts and principles underlying that agreement. Rather, the U.S. proposals would bring more transparency, clarity and predictability to antidumping proceedings and the imposition of antidumping measures.

The United States has made proposals on the following topics:  transparency and due process in antidumping proceedings, including mandatory preliminary determinations, procedural improvements related to the verification process; access to non-confidential information, identification of interested parties, application of facts available, disclosure of calculations in preliminary and final determinations, and identification of the source of exchange rates used; injury causation; offsets for non-dumped comparisons, definition of domestic industry for perishable and seasonal agricultural products; new shipper reviews; all others rate; accrual of interest on duty deposits; anticircumvention; and collection of dumping duties in administrative review or refund proceedings.

Horizontal Subsidies

As compared to antidumping, Members have submitted fewer proposals in the area of horizontal subsidies. The United States has made proposals regarding: prohibited subsidies, subsidy benefit calculation methodologies, indirect subsidies, natural resource and energy pricing, direct and indirect taxes, royalty-based financing and subsidy notifications. Many of the U.S. proposals that would promote transparency, clarity and predictability in antidumping proceedings are equally applicable to anti-subsidy or countervailing duty proceedings.

Click here to view the actual text of proposals made by the United States and other Members in the context of the antidumping and subsidies negotiations.

Three main negotiating documents have been issued by the Chairman of the Negotiating Group on Rules.  These include: