The Office of the United States Trade Representative

USTR Statement on WTO Report on Dumping Act
Contact: Ricardo Reyes (202) 395-3230 01/16/2003


Statement from the Office of the United States Trade Representative in response to the report of the WTO Appellate Body released today in the dispute concerning the U.S. “Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000:”

"We welcome the findings in today's report that the Act is consistent with the WTO requirements for the initiation of anti-dumping or countervailing duty investigations. We are still reviewing that report, but we note that since the dispute did not involve the underlying U.S. anti-dumping and countervailing duty laws, the United States will continue to vigorously enforce those laws to ensure that U.S. industries, farmers, and workers are not forced to compete with unfairly traded imports. We are however disappointed with the Appellate Body's findings concerning the funds disbursed under the Act.

The United States has been a leader in supporting rules-based dispute settlement in the WTO. Therefore, in this case as in others, the United States will seek to comply with its WTO obligations. We are reviewing the report to assess the best compliance options, and will discuss these with the Ways and Means and Finance Committees, and all other interested members of Congress."

Background

The Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000 ("CDSOA") was enacted in October 2000 as part of a Fiscal Year 2001 agriculture appropriations bill. As it was considered for the first time as part an appropriations bill, it was not approved by the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committees.

On September 10, 2001, a WTO dispute settlement panel was established at the request of Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Mexico and Thailand to examine the consistency of the CDSOA with U.S. WTO obligations under the WTO Anti-dumping Agreement and the WTO Subsidies Agreement. The panel found against the United States on three of the five principal claims asserted by the complaining parties.

The United States appealed the panel's adverse findings to the WTO Appellate Body on October 18, 2002. Under WTO rules, the WTO Dispute Settlement Body ("DSB") will adopt its recommendations and rulings in the dispute within 30 days. The United States will seek agreement with the 11 complaining parties on the reasonable period of time for the United States to comply with the DSB recommendations and rulings.”