New anti-dumping code picks up speed

Alan Peat THE RATHER shaky ground on which SA's anti-dumping actions have taken place over the last decade should soon be stabilised with the long-awaited legislation to underpin the investigations currently in draft form. "This has been promised since 1995, and should at long last clear up a lot of uncertainty and inconsistency in SA's anti-dumping actions," said Duane Newman, the Deloitte & Touche partner in charge of Trade & Investment Solutions. Indeed, SA's anti-dumping procedures by the Board on Tariffs & Trade (BoT&T) have been conducted on such an infirm legislative basis that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has expressed its criticism, warning that this could undermine the authority of decisions made by the board. However, said Newman, we will soon have the WTO's anti-dumping code - contained in the general agreement on tariffs and trade (GATT) - locally codified under the BoT&T Act. "This will clarify all the details surrounding anti-dumping," he added. "It will create more certainty laying out how to conduct cases, and calculate items." Two drafts of the new regulations have already been drawn up, according to a BoT&T spokesman. The drafts are currently being circulated internally in government circles, but Newman is confident that it will be out for public comment "in the next month or so". "It is reassuring that there are draft guidelines where previously there have just been promises of a legal foundation to anti-dumping actions." At the BoT&T, meantime, staff numbers are to be increased with an independent chairman and deputy chairman put in place. A new trade regulation body will then be created to be known as the Commission for International Trade.