Anti-Dumping Law of WTO/GATT and EC: Gradual Evolution of Anti-Dumping Law in Global Economic Integration

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study is to demonstrate and evaluate the current anti-dumping law as formed by the WTO/GATT law (GATT law) and implemented by the EC law against the background of global economic integration. Over centuries, international trade has involved a controversial business behaviour, “dumping”. Roughly speaking, a product is considered to be dumped if it is sold at a lower price abroad than at home. In nature, dumping is a differential pricing behaviour between different national markets. No sooner had the world entered into the 20th century than the first national anti-dumping law was enacted by Canada in 1904. International anti-dumping law was adopted in Article VI of the 1947 GATT, the rules of which have been elaborated and evolved in the subsequent three GATT Anti-Dumping Codes. In the EC, the first anti-dumping legislation, the so-called “Basic Regulation”, was enacted in 1968 and evolved in parallel with the GATT Anti-Dumping Codes within the structure of the EC legal system. The central parts of the current rules are those for determination of dumping (dumping rules), for determination of injury (injury rules) and for anti-dumping procedure (procedural rules). The current trend of global economic integration give rise to at least two questions: how does the current anti-dumping law operate under the auspices of the WTO/GATT and in a national or regional context? What should be done for the current anti-dumping law to satisfy the demand of global economy? Rather than advocates radical changes, this study pursues the goal of a gradual evolution of the current anti-dumping law. This general goal is derived, first, from a systematic and detailed inquiry into all three parts of the GATT anti-dumping law as international law and the EC anti-dumping law as implementing law and second, from an objective assessment of the current world economic situation. The inquiry presents the historical evolution of anti-dumping law, the current shape of each part of anti-dumping rules and practices, the current legal mechanism of each part and the inherent defects and loopholes in each part, suggesting the direction for each part to be improved and evolved if so required. The assessment indicates that, to maintain a stable world economic order, it is more appropriate to have a gradual evolution of the current anti-dumping law than to make radical changes. To this effect, the specific goals are set out for application and evolution of each part of the current anti-dumping law.