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Anti-Dumping Commission Steps up Education Drive

September 8, 2006

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The Anti-Dumping and Subsidies Commission will be stepping up its education drive over the next few months, with the aim of increasing awareness of the negative impacts of dumping, as well as the course of action in the event of injuries due to dumping.
Dumping is the act of selling merchandise in another country at a price below which it is sold in the home market, or less than the costs incurred in production and shipment.
Executive Director of the Commission, Andrea Marie Brown, told JIS News that “the Commission is aware of an extreme lack of understanding of using the tools and using the remedies”, hence the effort to heighten public and industry awareness.
Miss Brown said that over the coming months, the Commission would be going into Mandeville and Montego Bay “to educate the business people on the ground as to the use of the trade remedies,” noting that a series of business seminars were being arranged for the week of October 17.
Targeted, she said, were import/export businesses, customs agents, financial institutions and business associations, who would be educated on trade remedies, which are safeguard measures against dumping.
According to the Executive Director, the Commission had good evidence that, outside of the recent cement anti-dumping case filed against China, dumping might be taking place in other industries.
She noted that although the Commission “has not yet been able to conclude a case in other industries, does not mean that there isn’t also dumping in other industries, so that is why we have to make sure people understand the use of the instrument, so that if they are really suffering, they can actually do the work to conclude a case.”
In addition, Miss Brown told JIS News that the Commission was conducting refresher courses for Commissioners and was revising its public education material to make them more understandable to members of the general public.
“We’re doing some rewrites of our public material as well. The Commission is only about seven years-old.and there has been a learning curve.in terms of public education, so as the comfort grows within the Commission with being able to communicate that information, we hope that the material will also reflect a clearer style,” she told JIS News.
Meanwhile, as part of efforts to ensure that trade remedy matters adjudicated before the Commission proceed seamlessly through all the relevant government agencies, the Commission plans to complete drafting instructions for Regulations to the Customs Duties Dumping and Subsidies Act (CDDSA) by month-end.
“The first draft is ready and we are taking very close looks at that draft still, so we are hoping that [it will be completed] at the end of September. We are moving it as fast as we can to make sure it doesn’t stall anymore” Miss Brown said.
On the matter of the Safeguard Act and Regulations, she said the Commission would be shifting focus to this when the CDDSA is enacted in Parliament.
Meanwhile, Principal International Trade Advisor to King and Spalding law firm in Washington, Jorge Miranda, in his remarks at an Anti-dumping Commission organised public forum, held yesterday (Sept. 7) at the Knutsford Court Hotel, said the process of determining injury to one’s domestic market due to dumping was complex.
He further informed that based on World Trade Organisation agreements, in order to bring an action against a country believed to be dumping, plaintiffs were required to collect data on as many as 14 variables, then assess the condition of the domestic market based on the picture painted by these variables, when they were viewed collectively.

Last Updated: September 8, 2006

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