International Trade Law News

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has recently reports that the number of new new antidumping investigations declined by 7% during the second half of 2007 and the number of new antidumping orders (also referred to as "measures") also fell by 12% during the same period.

During July-December 2007, 14 WTO Members reported initiating a total of 101 new antidumping investigations, compared with 109 initiations in the corresponding period of 2006. A total of 13 Members reported applying 58 new final anti-dumping measures during the second half of 2007, compared with 66 new measures reported by 15 WTO Members during the same period in 2006.

Not surprisingly, China remained the most frequent subject of the new investigations, with 40 initiations directed at its exports during July-December 2007, virtually unchanged from the 39 new investigations on exports from China that were reported for the corresponding period of 2006. South Korea and Thailand were the second most frequent subjects, with eight new initiations each directed at their exports during the second half of 2007, compared with six and three, respectively, during the second half of 2006.

The products that were most frequently subject to the reported new antidumping investigations during the second half of 2007 were in the machinery and equipment sector (23 initiations), followed by chemicals (18 initiations), textiles (11), and base metals (10).

The number of antidumping investigations is likely to increase in 2008 as a result of the slowing world economy.

Labels: Antidumping, WTO