Importers warn about WTO ruling violations

JAKARTA (JP): Importer countries may impose discriminatory tariffs and tariffs exceeding the World Trade Organization's (WTO) bound rates if there is evidence imported products are sold at dumped prices, an official said yesterday.

The Chairman of the Indonesian Anti Dumping Committee, Taufiek Abbas, said importers may violate WTO rulings if imports were sold at dumped prices, especially if they harmed the importer country's domestic market.

"WTO rulings may be disregarded if there is a causal link between the dumping practice and the injury," Taufiek was quoted by Antara as saying.

Tariff levels are kept at bound rates stipulated by the WTO or by an individual country's commitment to keep a product's rate at a certain maximum level.

The rates must be applied without discrimination, or on a most favored nation basis, which means imports of certain products coming from all WTO member countries are subject to the same tariff level.

Taufiek said the WTO had established clauses on the administrative procedures to be taken in antidumping cases.

But those who played the major role in applying antidumping laws and clauses were antidumping officials in individual countries.

"This basically means that one country may apply its antidumping laws on another," he said.

Taufiek said certain pricing strategies were often considered to violate WTO antidumping laws when they reached the export market although they may be considered fair and normal when applied to the domestic market.

"Whether or not a pricing strategy will result in antidumping claims depends on the nature of the exported product, the situation of the industry competing with imports, and the political situation of the importer country," he said.

He said dumping claims also depended on market situation. If a country was short of a vital commodity like cement, for example, cheap imports carrying dumped prices would be considered a blessing.

But if a country had a surplus of cement at that time, cheap imports could be subject to a dumping claim, he said. (pwn)