Anti-Circumvention of Anti-Dumping Measures: Law and Practice of Argentina

Abstract

The article intends to summarize the Argentinean approach to anti circumvention processes. As these kinds of investigations are scarce and procedures are vague, we tried to review existing precedents to reach to some conclusions on the main variables considered to determine the presence of a circumventing behaviour. I analysed the main conclusions of two cases: radial ball bearings from China and parts of bicycle frames and forks, also originated in China; both involving the import of parts of the product subject to dumping duties in order to be assembled in Argentina. I realized that these investigations do not follow strict pre-fixed parameters except for identifying a change in the characteristics of trade flows that could be related to a practice, process or activity for which there is no adequate cause or economic justification other than the imposition of the duty. I also concluded that these procedures did not necessarily require evidence of dumping’s existence but gave importance to the presence of the same exporters and importers of the original dumping investigation. From a procedural point of view, circumvention processes could be initiated ex officio or by party request, and although being a bifurcated procedure where two technical departments are involved, it is the National Trade Commission the one that carries out a detailed analysis of the circumventing practice, whereas the technical body normally in charge of calculating the dumping margin, limits its participation to supporting the decision made by the Commission. Argentina applies additional controls to prevent circumvention, such as red channel of selectivity for the products subject to dumping duties and the demand for a certificate of origin when they are imported from a different origin. The additional requirements our country has established for goods subject to anti-dumping duties that originated in third countries, cover an important part of the broad range of circumventing manoeuvers. However, there is a full range of scenarios that surpasses these control mechanisms and for these situations that may be developed by a “creative” potential circumventing party, it is necessary to have instruments that could promptly react in case of circumvention of the measures applied.