Importers warn about WTO ruling violations

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)