Panel Report on EU-Biodiesel: A Glass Half Full? - Implications for the Rising Issue of 'Particular Market Situation'

Abstract

This article provides a detailed analysis of the World Trade Organisation (“WTO”) panel report on the EU – Biodiesel dispute which represents the latest development of the WTO jurisprudence on anti-dumping. The panel’s decision has significant implications for the rising use of Particular Market Situation (“PMS”) by traditional users of anti-dumping (such as Australia) against economies like China in anti-dumping investigations. The panel correctly established that a finding of PMS does not provide a sufficient ground for the use of surrogate costs in the determination of constructed normal value (“CNV”) and that the use of that methodology would result in the imposition of anti-dumping duties in excess of dumping margins that should have been established consistently with the WTO Anti-Dumping Agreement, that is, by using actual costs recorded by exporters under investigation. It is argued that both Australia’s anti-dumping laws which essentially authorise the use of surrogate costs in the construction of normal value solely based on a finding of PMS and Australia’s use of that methodology in practice are contrary to WTO rules. The panel’s decision, therefore, is a positive step toward the resolution of the issues related to PMS by imposing constraints on the use of a protectionist methodology in determining CNV so as to prevent unjustified inflation of dumping margins and anti-dumping duties.

Keywords: WTO; Anti-Dumping; Particular Market Situation; Surrogate Prices/Costs; China; Australia