RESTRICTED
WORLD TRADE G/ADP/AHG/W/18
19September 1997
ORGANIZATION(97-3775)
Original: English Committee onAnti-Dumping Practices
Ad-Hoc Group onImplementation
TOPIC 7*-ARTICLE 6.9"ESSENTIAL FACTS" AND
TOPIC 8*-ARTICLE 12.2 "PUBLIC NOTICE"
Paper byBrazil
Thefollowing communication, dated 9September 1997, hasbeen received from thePermanent
Mission ofBrazil.
_______________
Topic 7-Provision ofessential facts under consideration
Inaccordance with Article 6.9oftheAnti-Dumping Agreement “theauthorities shall, before
afinal determination ismade, inform allinterested parties oftheessential facts under consideration
which form thebasis forthedecision whether toapply definitive measures. Such disclosure shall take
place with sufficient time fortheparties todefend their interests ”.
Brazil ’scompliance withthisprovision ismade through theconvocation ofafinal hearing where
theessential facts under consideration areprovided inwritten form (this report isannexed tothe
investigative process). Interested parties have theopportunity topresent comments orally andtosubmit,
within 15days, their views inwritten form. Information received after theconclusion ofthisfinal
comment period, which marks theendoftheinvestigation perse,isnottaken intoconsideration for
purposes ofthefinal determination.
Thereport oftheessential facts under consideration contains thefollowing: asummary of
theinvestigation procedure; adescription oftheproduct under investigation andofthelikeproduct;
adefinition ofthedomestic industry; thedegree ofrepresentation oftheapplicant andthedegree of
support fortheapplication; theelements ofdumping (normal value, export price, methodology to
calculate dumping margins); data related totheimports thataretheobject ofdumping; theprices
andtheevolution oftheparticipation ofdumped imports inapparent consumption; thedatarelative
tothedomesticindustry(production,sales,marketshare,installedcapacity,profitmargins,employment,
productivity, stocks, exports, economic andfinancial analysis, among others, andinformation relative
toother factors); theviews andallegations ofinterested parties.
Theobjective ofpresenting theessential facts under consideration totheinterested parties is
toprovide transparency totheinvestigation andtoallow parties tocomment ontheabove-mentioned
facts, tooffer clarifications onspecific points, toprovide other points ofview totheinvestigative
authorities andtocomment and, eventually, suggest corrections oncalculation andmethodology.
*Seedocument G/ADP/W/401 fordescriptions ofthenumbered topics.G/ADP/AHG/W/18
Page 2
Thepresentation oftheessential facts under consideration bytheinvestigative authorities shall
notinvolve ananalysis ofmerit oradvance what willbethefinal determination since thishasstillnot
been reached andthecomments oftheparties may influence final results.
Questions fordiscussion
Iftheobjective ofthefinal disclosure istogive anopportunity totheinterested parties to
comment ontheanalysis oftheinformation they have received, having knowledge ofthedataandthe
presentations thathave been actually taken into consideration bytheinvestigative authorities, the
following questions seem toneed tobediscussed:
- What aretheprocedures tobeadopted inthecases inwhich, inthisstage ofthe
investigation, newinformation arereceived thatalter theessential facts thathave been
presented?
- Ifthenewinformation thataffect thedatabase presented inthefinal disclosure, which
would beused inthefinal determination, areaggregated totheprocess after thatstage
oftheinvestigation thatwould callfortheneed toproceed toanew disclosure. In
thiscase, thisprocedure would beinterpreted inlight ofArticle 6.14 orwould Article
5.10 apply?
- How should authorities proceed ifthenew information ispresented inthisphase of
theinvestigation incases inwhich theinvestigation ’sdeadlines have been extended
andthepresent phase isanextension?
- WouldthequestionsraisedabovesuggestthattheAnti-DumpingAgreementpresupposes
that after thefinal disclosure theinvestigative authorities may notaccept new
information, itbeing considered thatallinterested parties have been given ample
opportunity topresent their defences andaccess thenon-confidential information which
constitute theinvestigative process?
Topic 8-Public notice
I. Legal background
Thepublic notice provided forinArticle 12.2 oftheAgreement refers to“anypreliminary
orfinal determination, whether affirmative ornegative, ofanydecision toaccept anundertaking (...),
ofthetermination ofsuch anundertaking, andofthetermination ofadefinitive anti-dumping duty”.
Itmust include “insufficient detail thefindings andconclusions reached onallissues offactandlaw”
andthemotives which ledtotheimposition ofthemeasures, with dueaccount being taken forthe
right toconfidentiality fortheinformation thathasbeen provided. Thepublic notice provided for
inArticle 12.2.1 and12.2.2 must contain thereasons foraccepting orrejecting arguments orallegations
oftheinterested parties aswell asthebasis foranydecision taken under Article 6.10.2.
II. Public notice ofafinal determination
Thepublic notice related tothedetermination anddecisions referred toinArticle 12.2 must
contain, atleast, thefollowing information. Theother information referred toinArticle 12,ifnot
contained inthepublic notice, must beincluded inthecomplete report, which shall bepromptly placed
atthedisposal oftheinterested parties.G/ADP/AHG/W/18
Page 3
(a) Background totheprocess: information related tothemain stages oftheinvestigation,
such asthesubmission oftheapplication, initiation oftheinvestigation, notifications,
preliminary determination, final hearing, etc.
(b) Theproduct under investigation: product description, tariff classification, import tariff
inforce during theperiod under investigation forpurposes ofinjury analysis and
definition oflikeproduct.
(c) Thedomestic industry: definition ofthedomestic industry anditsparticipation inthe
domestic production.
(d) Dumping:methodologyadoptedforthedeterminationofthenormalvalue,oftheexport
price andofthemargin ofdumping.
(e) Injury: theevolution ofimports under dumped prices andtheevolution ofthese prices,
“anevaluation ofalltherelevant economic factors thatarepertinent tothedomestic
industry, including actual orpotential decline insales, profits, output, market share,
productivity,returnoninvestments,orutilizationofcapacity;factorsaffectingdomestic
prices; themagnitude ofthemargin ofdumping; actual orpotential negative effects
oncash flow, inventories, employment, wages, growth, ability toraise capital or
investments (Article 3.4)”.
(f) Causality: analysis ofacausal relationship between imports atdumped prices andinjury
tothedomestic industry, taking intoaccount theexamination ofother known factors,
inparticular those described inthelastpartofArticle 3.5,other thanimports atdumped
prices, which may becausing injury tothedomestic industry inthesame occasion.
(g) Conclusion andcalculation ofthemeasure: conclusion inrelation tothedetermination
thatwasreached andexplanation ofhowthemeasure thatwasapplied wascalculated.