The World Trade Organization at Japan's request, has now established a Dispute Settlement Body compliance review panel, concerning the United States' failure to follow WTO rulings and stop using "zeroing" in all anti-dumping calculations.
The WTO maintains a separate page for each DSB; DS322 [http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds322_e.htm.] The WTO has consistently ruled against U.S. use of zeroing; supporting Japan in the complaint are the European Communities, China, Hong Kong, and Norway.
Specifically, Japan alleges the U.S. stated it will stop the practice but in fact continues to use zeroing in certain calculations in new anti-dumping reviews. The U.S. also continues to use zeroing in periodic reviews and in the five-year sunset reviews of each antidumping order.
Japan's complaint DS322-27 is here. [http://docsonline.wto.org/DDFDocuments/t/WT/DS/322-27.doc]
The use of zeroing in periodic and sunset reviews is the more serious problem because there are many, many more older cases than new. If the original calculations were wrong in finding dumping where in fact it had not happened, simply reusing the same flawed data and/or calculation method will continue to find dumping where none occurred.
The vast majority of flawed U.S. antidumping cases cited by Japan (8 of 11, and 13 of 15 in the original complaint) involve ball and roller bearings. Japan argues that most, if not all, U.S. duties on its ball and roller bearings will be eliminated when zeroing stops.
The EU and Japan have been complaining to the WTO about U.S. use of zeroing since 2004, and specifically with Japan, its impact on the domestic bearing industry as far back as 2004:
Since 2006, the U.S. has been using an increasingly strained series of procedural maneuvers and stalling tactics to delay implementing the WTO rulings against zeroing. In January 2007, the U.S. then committed to an absolute deadline of December 2007, then missed it and several months later opened another round of negotiations on procedural issues.
By filing this latest action, Japan hopes to push the U.S. to follow through with its commitment to stop zeroing, and open the door to WTO-approved punitive trade actions if that doesn't happen.
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