China notified the WTO Secretariat, on 3 December, of a request for consultations with the United States regarding the use of certain methodologies in anti-dumping investigations involving Chinese products.

In its request for consultations, China alleges that the US Department of Commerce (USDOC) uses certain anti-dumping methodologies that are inconsistent with the US obligations under the Anti-dumping Agreement. These methodologies include the use of a “targeted dumping methodology”, including zeroing, in original investigations and administrative reviews; the presumption that all producers and exporters from countries that the US consider non-market economies (“NME”) comprise a single entity (also referred to by China as “single rate presumption” methodology); the calculation of a single dumping margin or a single anti-dumping duty rate for that entity (“NME-wide methodology”); and the use of inferences that are adverse to the interests of a party when the USDOC considers that this party has failed to cooperate. This is the eighth case filed by China against trade remedy measures adopted by the US (and the fourth such case filed this year).

> Further information will be available within the next few days in document WT/DS471/1

What is a request for consultations?

The request for consultations formally initiates a dispute in the WTO. Consultations give the parties an opportunity to discuss the matter and to find a satisfactory solution without proceeding further with litigation. After 60 days, if consultations have failed to resolve the dispute, the complainant may request adjudication by a panel.

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