On 5 July 2012, the United States requested consultations with China with regard to Notice No. 20 [2011] and Notice No. 84 [2011] of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China (“MOFCOM”) imposing anti-dumping and countervailing duties on certain automobiles from the United States, including any and all annexes.
The United States alleges that these measures appear to be inconsistent with:
•Articles 1, 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 3.5, 4.1, 5.3, 5.4, 6.2, 6.5.1, 6.8 (including Annex II, paragraph 1), 6.9, 12.2, and 12.2.2 of the Anti-Dumping Agreement;
•Articles 10, 11.3, 11.4, 12.4.1, 12.7, 12.8, 15.1, 15.2, 15.4, 15.5, 16.1 22.3, and 22.5 of the SCM Agreement; and
•Article VI of the GATT 1994.
On 17 September 2012, the United States requested the establishment of a panel. At its meeting on 28 September 2012, the DSB deferred the establishment of a panel.
Panel and Appellate Body proceedings
At its meeting on 23 October 2012, the DSB established a panel. Colombia, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Turkey reserved their third party rights. On 1 February 2013, the United States requested the Director-General to determine the composition of the panel. On 11 February 2013, the Director-General composed the panel.
The panel issued its report on May 23, 2014. In its report, the panel found in favor of the United States on nearly all U.S. claims. Specifically, with regard to MOFCOM’s substantive errors, the panel found that China breached its WTO obligations by improperly determining that U.S. exports were causing injury to the domestic Chinese industry; improperly analyzing the effects of U.S. exports on prices in the Chinese market; and calculating the “all others” dumping margin and subsidy rates for unknown U.S. exporters without a factual basis. With respect to procedural failings in the MOFCOM investigations, the panel found that China breached its WTO obligations by failing to disclose essential facts to U.S. companies, including how their dumping margins were calculated; and failing to provide non-confidential summaries of Chinese submissions containing confidential information.
Neither party appealed the panel’s findings. On June 18, 2014, the DSB adopted its recommendations and rulings in this dispute. In December 2013, after the parties had submitted all of their submissions and hearings had taken place before the panel, but before the panel had issued its report, MOFCOM announced the termination of the AD and CVD duties on American-made cars and SUVs. Accordingly, the United States considers that no more action is necessary for China to implement the findings and recommendations in the panel report with respect to the challenged measures.
