US antidumping reforms a mixed bag: EU official

Washington, Apr 12: The United States has not reformed its anti-dumping duties enough to comply with a World Trade Organization ruling, but has taken some positive steps, a European Union official said.

''We have mixed feelings on the actions taken by the US Commerce Department. Certain aspects are satisfactory, but others clearly disappointing. In fact, Commerce has only partially implemented the dispute settlement body ruling and recommendations,'' the official said.

The EU plans to further review the Commerce Department actions ''and will take appropriate steps to protect our rights,'' he said.

He was responding to a Commerce Department decision published on Tuesday over the protests of US steel companies to comply with a WTO ruling against a practice known as ''zeroing'' in the calculation of anti-dumping duties.

That practice allows administrators to ignore any ''above market'' prices in calculating duty rates on goods being sold in the US market below fair market value.

Critics complain the procedure leads to higher anti-dumping duties than if the prices were included.

The Commerce Department's decision revoked anti-dumping duty orders on eight European steel companies after recalculating the rates to comply with the WTO ruling.

The EU welcomed that step but still believes the Commerce Department has not properly addressed other concerns.

In several cases, the department has massively increased an ''all others'' rate applied to exporters not subject to a specific anti-dumping order, the EU official said.

Also, the Commerce Department reforms only apply to duties imposed as a result of 15 original anti-dumping investigations.

''The US was also under the obligation to review the dumping margin in 16 annual administrative reviews,'' the EU official said.

However, US steel companies sharply criticised the Commerce Department decision.

They believe it severely weakens US anti-dumping laws in response to ''an incorrect and overreaching ruling by the World Trade Organization,'' a spokeswoman for the American Iron and Steel Institute said.

Richard Cunningham, an attorney with Steptoe&Johnson who successfully represented European steel producer Corus in the case, called the reforms ''a very significant change in the way we calculate dumping duty rates.'' One unanswered question is whether exporters forced to post cash deposits under 15 anti-dumping investigations will get their money back. ''One company alone has 30 million dollar of cash deposits,'' Cunningham said.

Reuters