Shaping the WTO Anti-Dumping Agreement

Of all the issues negotiated under the Uruguay Round, anti-dumping (AD) was perhaps the most contentious. Broadly stating, the debate pitted antidumping's traditional users essentially industrialised countries such as USA and EC against traditional non-users, primarily the developing countries. The present exercise aims to evaluate the shaping of the WTO Anti-Dumping Agreement, particularly from the standpoint of the issues on AD raised by the developing countries starting from the Uruguay Round. It was found that in spite of several countries requesting for possible amendments to the AD Code, a large number of these clauses were not incorporated into the present AD Agreement, thereby failing to deliver the commitments of the developing countries. Also, there are a large number of loopholes in the different provisions of the present AD Agreement, whose faulty implementation has substantial negative consequences particularly on the developing countries. The paper also discusses some important concerns that need to be addressed in the future rounds of negotiations, which will help to limit the number of unjustified investigations and ensure greater transparency and predictability in the existing rules.