The United States, on 6 February, signed roadmap agreements with the European Union and Japan on ending its controversial “zeroing” method to calculate anti-dumping duties. The deal was announced only days before WTO arbitrators were scheduled to examine the EU’s and Japan’s request on retaliating against Washington for its failure to comply with WTO rulings that had deemed the use of zeroing illegal. Though the U.S.’ agreements are formally limited to the two trading giants, the changes are also set to affect other countries.
With the bilateral understandings, the U.S. commits itself to forego the use of zeroing in future administrative reviews of anti-dumping investigations. The U.S. Department of Commerce will begin applying the new methodology later this month.
In addition, the agreements foresee a recalculation of certain anti-dumping duties currently being applied against European and Japanese producers. “In certain individual anti-dumping cases involving the EU and Japan, the United States will be conducting proceedings to recalculate anti-dumping duty cash deposits without zeroing,” a United States Trade Representative (USTR) official explained to Bridges. “These case-specific proceedings will be completed in four months.” Read more here.
