Australia: Growers want easier anti-dumping system
An inquiry into Australia’s anti-dumping measures has been told the current system is “unworkable” and that the time and resources suppliers were required to allocate, on top of running their businesses, were a major obstacle to lodging claims.
AusVeg has called for the anti-dumping legislation to be streamlined and the amount of data required to file a claim to be reduced.
House of Representatives Agriculture and Industry Committee chairman, Liberal MP Rowan Ramsey, announced an inquiry earlier this year amid claims there were too many loopholes.
He said as soon as an anti-dumping decision was granted against an imported product, producers were finding ways of changing the description, altering the product or routing the product through a third country to avoid the anti-dumping action.
SPC Ardmona successfully brought action against importers of Italian canned tomatoes last year for dumping, but it was believed to have come at a huge financial cost.
Mr Ramsey said Australia should not be prepared to accept competition from heavily subsidised overseas manufacturers who were dumping their products below the cost of production.
AusVeg’s submission to the inquiry also called for the Anti-Dumping Commission to be given powers that provided more flexibility and expanded reach to deal quicker with dumping and circumvention behaviour. It said the commission needed an expanded ability to address behaviour within a time frame that allowed for the effective correction of damaging behaviour instead of being “a post-event Band-Aid”.
It also wants revenue paid from dumping duties to be put towards support measures for the local industry, such as financial relief or investment in research and development.
Source: weeklytimesnow.com.au