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UNITED
STATES � ANTI-DUMPING MEASURES ON
Report of the Panel (Continued)
SECOND SUBMISSION OF KOREA
(29 June 2000)
CONTENTS
ARGUMENT
1. This submission by the Republic of Korea ("Korea") responds to the arguments presented by the United States in its First Submission and during the first meeting of the Panel, as well as to the arguments presented by the third parties in their written submissions and oral presentations, concerning the anti-dumping measures imposed by the United States against the Pohang Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. ("POSCO") as a result of the investigations of Stainless Steel Plate in Coils ("SSPC") and Stainless Steel Sheet and Strip in Coils ("SSSS") from Korea.
2. As an initial matter, it should be noted that the first round of written submissions, and the first meeting of the Panel, have narrowed the issues in this proceeding considerably - as the United States has retreated significantly from a number of the positions it had taken previously. In particular,
3. In short, the concessions the United States has made are fatal to its case. The anti-dumping measures on SSPC and SSSS should not, therefore, be allowed to remain in effect.
ARGUMENT I. ISSUES CONCERNING PANEL PROCEDURES 4. In its submissions, the United States has argued that the Panel's role in this proceeding should be narrowly circumscribed to essentially shield the US anti-dumping measures from meaningful review. Thus, the United States argues that the Panel is not even permitted to consider the merits of Korea's claims, because, it contends, Korea allegedly failed to meet the burden of proof in some as-yet unspecified manner. The United States also argues that the Panel should accept the US decisions under some extreme rule of deference - in part because it contends that the issues raised by Korea involve "factual" questions (even though there actually are no facts in dispute) and in part because it has decided that its own interpretations of the Anti-Dumping Agreement on the relevant issues are "permissible."
5. These procedural arguments by the United States are, however, off the point. They misstate the requirements of the Anti-Dumping Agreement, and they mischaracterize the claims Korea has actually made. As discussed below, they certainly do not provide a basis for the Panel to ignore the substantive claims Korea has presented.
6. The First Submission of the United States asserted that a complaining party "bears the initial burden of coming forward with evidence and argument that establishes a prima facie case of a violation."1 Significantly, the US Submission did not argue that Korea had failed to meet its burden. Instead, it seems that the United States had a different purpose for making this statement: To set up a phantom argument that Korea did not make in an attempt to obscure a key point in this case.
7. The US Submission argued that Korea's burden is not affected by the fact that anti dumping measures are a derogation from the trade liberalization purposes of the WTO.2 The US argument implies that Korea argued that it is exempt from the initial burden of presenting a prima facie case. But Korea never made such an argument. To the contrary, Korea introduced considerable evidence and argument to meet its initial burden.
8. The true significance of the fact that anti dumping measures are a derogation from the main thrust of the WTO lies in the nature of WTO disciplines on anti dumping measures. As Korea explained in its First Submission, the authority to impose anti dumping duties is narrowly limited to circumstances where there is injurious dumping, and anti dumping duties cannot exceed the dumping margin. This has always been the rule under GATT 1947, and it is very explicit in Articles 1 and 9.3 of the Anti Dumping Agreement.3
9. These limitations are essential to the proper functioning of the WTO regime. Without these limitations, Members could readily circumvent their tariff bindings and most favoured nation commitments simply by labeling any new duties as "anti dumping duties" without regard to whether there was any dumping to offset. Dumping calculations thus play a vital role in preserving the integrity of other WTO obligations - and so these calculations are themselves subject to detailed substantive and procedural disciplines. The object and purpose of these detailed rules, then, is to restrict the use of anti dumping measures to circumstances where (among other conditions) dumping has been fairly established. These detailed rules must, of course, be interpreted in accordance with that object and purpose.
10. It was only in its Oral Statement that the United States argued for the first time that Korea "failed to meet its burden of proof." Specifically, the United States argued as follows:
It is readily apparent that these conclusory assertions by the United States are insufficient to establish that Korea failed to produce sufficient evidence and argument to present a prima facie case. The US Oral Statement did not point to a single concrete example of a missing piece of required evidence or argument.
11. Nor could the United States have done so. Korea bore its burden by providing ample evidence and argument in its First Submission to demonstrate the United States' substantive violations concerning each of the three key issues, as well as the various procedural violations. For example, with regard to the unpaid sales issue, Korea provided evidence and argument showing that there were unpaid sales, that the United States made an adjustment for those unpaid sales, that the United States included the unpaid sales in its calculation of export price, and that the adjustment and the inclusion in the dumping calculation were improper, unfair, and inconsistent with WTO procedures. If anything more than that is required to make a prima facie case, the United States has failed to suggest what that might be. Korea, therefore, clearly met its burden of presenting a prima facie case.
12. In an effort to avert legitimate Panel scrutiny of the DOC's factual conclusions, the US Submission mischaracterized Korea's position. Specifically, the US Submission complained that "Korea invites the Panel to step into the shoes of the DOC and engage in a de novo review of the facts."5 That statement has no basis. Korea never invited de novo review.
13. To the extent that there are facts in dispute, Korea expects that this Panel will assess the facts of this matter in accordance with Article 17.6(i) of the Anti Dumping Agreement. Under that Article , factual conclusions are to be rejected by the Panel if the facts were not established properly or if they were not evaluated objectively and without bias. Thus, contrary to the United States' suggestion, the Anti Dumping Agreement does not preclude the Panel from reviewing factual conclusions altogether. To the contrary, Article 17.6(i) expressly contemplates Panel "assessment of the facts of the matter" and requires that factual conclusions be reviewed under an appropriate standard. Decisions of other panels demonstrate that the appropriate standard of review is "whether a reasonable, unprejudiced person could have" made the factual determinations at issue "based on the evidence relied upon."6
14. In any event, the US argument is largely irrelevant. There actually are very few, if any, facts in dispute - especially in light of the significant concessions made by the United States at the first Panel meeting. To be precise,
For none of the substantive issues, therefore, are there any key facts in dispute. There are only legal questions concerning the propriety, fairness, and reasonableness of the US methodology.
15. The United States repeats in this case its now familiar attempt to import a concept of extreme deference from US domestic law into the WTO regime.7 Specifically, the US First Submission contended, "[T]he relevant question in every case is not whether the challenged determination rests upon the best or the 'correct' interpretation of the Anti Dumping Agreement, but whether it rests upon a 'permissible interpretation' (of which there may be many). If it does then this Panel must uphold the determination."8
16. That assertion (which is unsupported by any argument) misstates the rule for construing the Anti Dumping Agreement in Article 17.6(ii). Article 17.6(ii) provides:
The US view virtually ignores the first sentence of Article 17.6(ii),9 while distorting the meaning of the second.
17. In fact, this Panel is expressly charged with interpreting the Anti Dumping Agreement in accordance with customary rules of treaty interpretation (such as Articles 31 and 32 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties). If that process leads the Panel to conclude that there is one correct interpretation of a particular provision, then an anti dumping measure based on a different interpretation cannot stand. Only in those rare circumstances where the customary interpretative process leads the Panel to conclude that there is "more than one permissible interpretation," does the second sentence of Article 17.6(ii) apply. That is, Article 17.6(ii) only provides for deference to a defending party's interpretation of a provision after the Panel has already completed the interpretative process and affirmatively found "more than one permissible interpretation." Thus, the US view has it backwards. It is not the Panel's role to ask first (and only) whether the US interpretations of the Anti Dumping Agreement are "permissible" - instead, that question only arises at the end of the customary interpretative process. Any other interpretation would render the first sentence of Article 17.6(ii) "inutile," and would undo the carefully wrought balance of interests that is reflected in Article 17.6(ii) as negotiated.
18. In DRAMS, another case arising under the Anti Dumping Agreement between the same two parties as in this case, the parties argued at length about the US claim for special deference to its legal interpretations.10 The DRAMS Panel found it possible to rule for Korea without making a definitive "general" statement about the meaning of Article 17.6(ii). Nevertheless, the Panel's comment on Article 17.6(ii) is highly instructive:
Thus, in the course of rejecting interpretations advanced by the United States as "permissible," the DRAMS Panel made two important points about how Article 17.6(ii) functions. First, it re affirmed the primacy of customary rules of interpretation in construing the Anti Dumping Agreement. Second, it clearly rejected the notion that mere invocation of the phrase "permissible interpretation" automatically "alter[s] the legal basis" upon which a panel may evaluate a legal argument.
1 US First Submission, para. 36.
2 US First Submission, paras. 37, 39.
The US Submission denied that anti-dumping measures are a
derogation from the main thrust of the WTO regime. Naturally, the United States
failed both to provide any alternative to Korea�s view that the main thrust of
the WTO regime is to liberalize and promote trade and to reconcile
tariff-raising measures with the liberalization and promotion of trade. Instead,
the United States hid behind a tangential legal argument. According to the
United States, the Appellate Body found in Wool Shirts that the
transitional safeguard mechanism in the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing
("ATC") was not an "exception" and that the "reasoning" of that finding "applies
with equal force to anti-dumping measures." US Submission, para. 38, discussing
United States - Measure affecting Imports of Woven Wool Shirts and Blouses
from India, WT/DS33/AB/R, Report of the Appellate Body, adopted 23 May 1997,
at 16. That argument is flawed. The Appellate Body did not in fact rule on
whether the transitional safeguard mechanism is an "exception." Rather, it
simply found that the GATT cases regarding the burden of production for GATT
"exceptions" did not apply in the context of the ATC. That is, it ruled that the
normal rules applied: the complaining party had the initial burden and, when
that was satisfied, the defending party had the burden to respond. (The latter
point is noticeably missing from the US discussion of burden issues generally
and Wool Shirts in particular. It is quite ironic that the United States
heavily relies on Wool Shirts when that decision held that the
complaining party (India) met its initial burden, but the defending party
(the United States) failed its later burden.) Moreover, the reasoning of the
Appellate Body was strictly focused on the unique aspects of the ATC as a
transitional arrangement within the WTO and there is absolutely nothing about
the Wool Shirts decision that suggests that anti-dumping measures should
not be regarded as a derogation from basic GATT norms. See Wool Shirts,
at 16.
3 See Korea�s First Submission, para. 4.2.
4 US Oral Statement, para. 3.
5 US First Submission, para. 27.
6 See Mexico - Anti-Dumping Investigation of High Fructose
Corn Syrup (HFCS) from the United States, Report of the Panel, WT/DS132/R,
adopted 24 Feb. 2000, paras. 7.94 - 7.95 ("whether the evidence before SECOFI at
the time it initiated the investigation was such that an unbiased and objective
investigating authority evaluating that evidence, could properly have determined
that sufficient evidence of dumping, injury, and causal link existed to justify
initiation"). The HFCS decision applied the standard of review announced
in Guatemala - Anti-Dumping Investigation regarding Portland Cement from
Mexico, Report of the Panel, WT/DS60/R, adopted 25 Nov. 1998, as modified by
the Appellate Body on other grounds, paras. 7.54 - 7.57, which in turn applied
the standard of review in United States - Initiation of a Countervailing Duty
Investigation into Softwood Lumber Products from Canada, Report of the
Panel, 34S/194, adopted 3 June 1987, paras. 332-35.
Although it pre-dates the Uruguay Round, the observation of
the Electrical Transformers Panel about the importance of reviewing
factual conclusions under an appropriate standard still rings true today: That
Panel rejected the defending party�s argument that its factual determinations
were not reviewable, because that "would give governments complete freedom and
unrestricted discretion in deciding anti-dumping cases without any possibility
to review the action taken in the GATT. This would lead to an unacceptable
situation under the aspect of law and order in international trade relations as
governed by the GATT." New Zealand - Imports of Electrical Transformers from
Finland, Report of the Panel, L/5814 -32S/55, adopted on 18 July 1985, para.
4.4.
7 The so-called Chevron doctrine of US law - which
requires the courts to defer to an agency�s interpretation of the laws it
administers - is based on concepts of governance peculiar to the US domestic
system (such as the "separation of powers" among the three branches of the
federal government). See Adams Fruit Co. v. Barrett, 494 US 638, 649
(1990) ("A precondition to deference under Chevron is a congressional delegation
of administrative authority.") (ROK Ex. 59), superseded by statute on other
grounds as stated in Deck v. Peter Romein�s Sons, Inc., 109 F.3d 383
(7th Cir. 1997). Chevron deference has no application in the WTO
context. The US attempt to bring Chevron to the WTO was not successful in
the Uruguay Round negotiations, it was not successful in past cases such as
DRAMS, and it should not succeed here.
8 US First Submission, para. 35. In an oral aside at the first
meeting of the Panel, the United States clarified its position, indicating that
it meant to say that any "permissible interpretation" of the Anti-Dumping
Agreement is "correct" and "must be sustained." This clarification is the
high-water-mark of the US demand for deference, revealing the extreme,
unquestioning deference the United States seeks.
9 Indeed, in its oral statement, the United States wholly
ignored the first sentence, describing the second sentence alone. US Oral
Statement, para. 50.
10 Korea commends the relevant portion of the descriptive part
of the DRAMS Panel report to this Panel for further discussion of this
issue. See United States - Anti-Dumping Duty on Dynamic Random Access Memory
Semiconductors (DRAMS) of One Megabit or Above from Korea, Report of the
Panel, WT/DS99/R, adopted on 19 Mar. 1999, at paras. 4.44 - 4.74. Korea further
commends to the Panel�s attention the excellent Article on this subject by the
eminent WTO scholar John Jackson, which (as discussed further in DRAMS)
completely undercuts the intellectual basis for the US position. See
Steven P. Croley & John H. Jackson, WTO Dispute Procedures, Standard of
Review, and Deference to National Governments, 90 Am. J. Int�l L. 193 (1996)
(ROK Ex. 60).
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