Anti-Dumping

Dumping is an unfair trade practice governed by the provisions of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Anti-Dumping and the national laws stemming from the agreement in WTO member countries, including Jordan, GCC countries, and Egypt. 

Dumping occurs when an exporting company sells its product in an export market for less than its normal value, causing or threatening to cause such material injury to the competitors in that market, especially the local industries producing similar products. 

Companies practising dumping are usually dominant and powerful ones that exclude or limit competitors' market share in the export market, especially the local industries. 

To combat dumping, the anti-dumping agreement allows member states to apply anti-dumping measures against imports sold in the market at dumped prices to protect the domestic industries producing like products. The agreement sets procedural and substantive legal conditions to decide on the existence of dumping. The Anti-Dumping petition filed by the local industry must be investigated by the competent authority, where the local industry must provide evidence and data to demonstrate the occurrence of dumping, and the material injury affecting the local industry, and the causal relationship between the dumping, and the injury of the local industry.

During the investigation, the competent authority verifies the data provided by the local industry and all participating parties. Also, the authority provides the opportunity for exporters, the government of the exporting country, and the importers of the investigated product to participate in the investigation and provide comments and evidence against the petition and the allegations of the local industry. 

The submission of a dumping complaint does not necessarily mean that dumping exists; therefore, the provisions of the agreement and related laws ensure the validity of the allegations by evidence, because it could be frivolous to unjustly exclude competing companies from the market, which may ultimately have negative effects on the public interest and the consumer. Therefore, the competent authority acts as a quasi-judicial body that ultimately rules the petition upon weighing evidence provided by all the parties involved in the case. 

If the investigation authority reaches a positive determination to impose anti-dumping measures, anti-dumping duties will be imposed on the goods imported from the concerned country, based on the dumping margin concluded at the end of the investigation. The margin for dumping is defined as the difference between the product's normal value and its export price. The duration of anti-dumping duties is normally five years, subject to re-application for similar durations if the conditions to apply the anti-dumping measure persists. 

The anti-dumping legislations applied in WTO member countries emerged from the anti-dumping agreement, so the provisions of these legislations are similar to a large extent.

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Disclaimer: The information provided here is of a general nature and may not apply to any particular matter. It does not constitute legal advice nor presumed indefinitely up to date.