Article
Introduction of Significant Distortions Methodology in the EU’s anti-dumping laws
By Vikrant Nehra
To overcome the issue of the alleged expiry of Paragraph 15(a)(ii) of the Chinese Accession Protocol and the probable illegality of the continuation of non-market economy methodology vis-à-vis China, the EU has amended its Basic Anti-dumping Regulation. As per new Article 2(6a), normal value will not be determined based on actual domestic selling price if there is evidence of ‘significant distortions’. According to the author, while it remains unclear from the text of Article 2(6a) that how analysis of ‘significant distortions’ would be carried out, the amendment opens up a possibility whereby exports from other countries like India can also be subject to this unfavourable methodology traditionally reserved for countries like China. The article further notes that the EU has also linked the use of ‘lesser duty rule’ to the ‘distortions’ rule and thus the lesser duty rule may not be applied by the EU if there is distortion of raw material prices. As per the author, it is to be seen how the EU has implemented the revised rules in recent anti-dumping determinations against China and other countries...
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