South Africa is one of the oldest and most prolific users of the anti-dumping instrument. The International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC), which is responsible for conducting investigations recently published proposed amendments to the Anti-Dumping Regulations.

Among the more important proposed amendments, ITAC proposes holding interested party hearings at its discretion; increasing industry standing requirements for injury purposes to a level significantly higher than that required in terms of the World Trade Organisation’s Anti-Dumping Agreement; introducing a minimum value added by the industry before such industry will have standing to submit applications which will disqualify an estimated more than 50 per cent of all South African manufacturers; including, when requested by the Minister, public interest as a factor to be considered in investigations; having absolute discretion in deciding whether provisional measures should be imposed even if it were shown that dumping was causing material injury; determining the export price in cases where no exports took place during a review period on a WTO-inconsistent basis; not informing interested parties of the pending lapse of anti-dumping duties; and changing the eligibility of parties to lodge interim and new shipper reviews.

Some of the proposed amendments will result in the expedited finalisation of investigations and others will result in greater transparency, which should be welcomed. However, some of the proposed amendments will have the opposite effect. Despite industry’s comments on the current regulations the proposed amendments still place no time frames for the various phases of an investigation in ITAC.

The paper concludes that although some of the proposed amendments are in order, some other proposed amendments will further decrease the effectiveness of the instrument and deny the SACU protection against unfair international trade. It is further proposed that ITAC should issue a new proposal taking into consideration all comments, and that the second proposal be discussed in NEDLAC.

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