Court rules five-year limit for anti-dumping duties

HOW LONG should importers endure the pain of anti-dumping duties? That question was posed to FTW by Pre Prinsloo, a partner in Durban-based lawyers Shepstone & Wylie. These anti-dumping duties are imposed on goods emanating from specific countries, and products are considered to be “dumped” when landed in SA at a price which is less than its normal value. “The minister of finance has the power to impose anti-dumping duties in respect of certain goods in terms of the International Trade Administration Act (ITAA) and the Customs & Excise Act.” But, when such a duty is imposed, the question which then arises is, for how long should the antidumping duty remain in force? The answer, according to a recent decision by the court of appeal in the case of Progress Office Machines v SA Revenue Service (Sars), is that an anti-dumping duty can only remain in force for a period of fiveyears unless it is taken on review prior to the expiry of the five-year period. In this particular case, Prinsloo told FTW, the antidumping duty was imposed on May 28, 1999 – but with retrospective effect to November 27, 1998. “When Progress Office Machines imported A4 size paper from Singapore – the product and country against which the anti-dumping duty was imposed – from January 8 to September 20, 2004,” he said, “the commissioner for customs contended that antidumping duty was payable on their consignments of paper during this period." But the supreme court of appeal ruled that the anti-dumping regulations published under ITAA determined a five-year duration, and this effectively meant that Progress Office Machines did not have to pay any anti-dumping duty on these consignments. “This decision,” said Prinsloo, “will have a major impact on all those importers who import products which attract antidumping duties.”