The European Commission (EC) and Japan have claimed that clever new rules and arrangements could bring down the costs of anti-dumping investigations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).In a joint proposal, EC and Japan have suggested that standardised questionnaires, standard rules for on-spot verifications, shorter periods of investigation, mandatory deadlines for reviews and clear rules on non-confidential summary could result in a significant reduction of burden of both parties in an investigation.India, which has suffered losses in exports of bed-linen to the European Union (EU) due to wrongful imposition of anti-dumping duties, is closely studying the proposal. Official sources said India would comment on it only after a complete scrutiny of the contents.Interestingly, the highest number of anti-dumping cases initiated against India is by the EU. It accounted for 33 per cent of the total 82 cases initiated against India last year.Legal experts, however, have called it a welcome suggestion which would increase transparency and cut costs. Said Sharad Bhansali from Strategic Law Group, a legal firm providing consultancy, “India would benefit from the proposal. Our system is much less complicated than many countries. If an effort is made towards simplifying anti-dumping procedures and standardising them, it would help us deal better with countries that have complicated and less transparent procedures.”While stating that reduced costs of investigation would help developing countries which do not have enough resources, the paper said it would particularly be helpful to small exporters who were discouraged from cooperating in investigations if the costs were too high.Commenting on the size of questionnaires, the paper noted that the length of questionnaires in many countries went beyond a “typical paper-back novel”. This translated directly into costs for parties concerned which flowed down to subsequent stages of investigation including preparation for a verification visit and the actual verification visit itself.
