Protectionism in the Era of Globalisation : The Misuse of Anti-Dumping Instruments From an EU Perspective

The purpose of the dissertation at hand is to contrast the AdA (Agreement on the Implementation of Article VI of the GATT'94) with anti-dumping investigations carried out by and against the EU. It has been usual to suppose that WTO Members apply the AdA's flexible rules in a protectionist manner. However, hardly any treatise on contingent protection is concerned with this facet of global trade law. The question, also, of the volume of dumped imports, in the sense of negligibility, the impact of geopolitical factors, the extent of protectionism and malpractices in the review phase, has scarcely been examined. Is it true that anti-dumping instruments are being misused in view of the flexible rules of the Anti-dumping Agreement? For, admittedly, malpractices have been forthcoming ever since the WTO came into being. Sharp distinctions are made through a critical examination of inspection documents on the one hand and sixty-six charts which scrutinise every section of the investigative process on the other. The study identifies contingent protectionism in sectors of geopolitical importance, tit-for-tat in the imposition of anti-dumping measures and partiality in the various rates of duties. Furthermore, it identifies malpractices in the determination of negligiblity, normal value, export prices, injury and margins of dumping. The findings shed new light on the functioning of the US International Trade Administration, the DG Trade EU and the PRC Trade Remedy Investigation Bureau. Finally, a solution is sought through the formulation of a new general theory on the detection of sales outside the natural course of world trade and a definition of sales within the ordinary course of trade