The Hindu : India wins case at WTO

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 11, 2003

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India wins case at WTO

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI APRIL 10. India expects the European Commission (EC) to revoke the anti-dumping duty on bed linen imports and terminate the ongoing partial interim review. This follows a ruling by the appellate body of the World Trade Organisation that the Commission has failed to act consistently with the provisions of the Anti-Dumping Agreement.

The Commerce Ministry while describing the WTO ruling as a major gain, pointed out that the decision was linked to the EC's implementation of the rulings and recommendations of the WTO's dispute settlement body in a dispute with India on imposition of anti-dumping duty on bed linen imports in November 1997.

The Ministry said in a statement that in light of the findings of the appellate body, India expected the Commission to revoke the anti-dumping duty on bed linen and terminate the ongoing partial interim review as well as the sunset review, as these were based on a measure that had been found to be inconsistent with the anti-dumping agreement.

The Ministry recalled that on August 7, 2002, the Council of the European Union adopted a regulation amending the original definitive anti-dumping duties on bed linen from India purporting to comply with the Disputes Settlement Body's recommendations in the original dispute while simultaneously suspending its application.

India strongly disagreed that this re-determination complied with the DSB's rulings. Accordingly, it sought the establishment of a compliance panel to examine the existence or consistency of action taken by the Commission to implement the DSB decision.

India argued that the Commission failed to determine the volume of dumped imports attributable to non-examined producers on the basis of "positive evidence" and an "objective examination". Though the compliance panel concluded that the Commission had complied with the DSB decision in the original dispute, India later appealed against certain issues of law and legal interpretations. While reversing a new finding of the compliance panel, the appellate body now held that the Commission's determination of the volume of the dumped imports for purpose of making a determination of injury was not based on an objective examination.

The appellate body concluded that the Commission's determination that all imports attributable to non-examined producers were dumped, though the evidence from the examined producers showed that the producers, accounting for 53 per cent of imports attributed to examined producers, were not dumping, did not lead to a result which was unbiased, even-handed and fair, the statement said.

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