WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/RL/GEN/21 
19 October 2004 
 (04-4397) 
Negotiating Group on Rules Original:   English/ 
 French 
 
 
 
EXPLANATIONS OF DETERMINATIONS AND DECISIONS 
 
Communication from Canada  
 
 
 The following communication, dated 18 October 2004, is being circulated at the request of the Delegation of Canada.  
 The submitting delegation has requested that th is paper, which was submitted to the Rules 
Negotiating Group as an informal document (JOB(04)/ 149), also be circulated as a formal document. 
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Background 
  
1. In its earlier paper, TN/RL/W/47, Canada iden tified the importance of the related concepts of 
transparency and procedural fairness to the prope r functioning of the Agre ements.  Other members 
have also highlighted transparency and procedural fairness as important issues.  
 2. The ability of a party to effectively defe nd its interests throughout an anti-dumping or 
countervail investigation depends largely on the sufficiency of explanations issued by the 
investigating authority in respect of the legal and factual basis of determinations and decisions made 
at each stage of the process.  Article 12 of th e ADA and Article 22 of the ASCM currently provide 
some guidance on the information to be provided at the initiation, preliminary determination and final 
determination stages of an investig ation.  That said, Canada believes that there is scope for the further 
elaboration of these provisions with the aim of pr oviding greater transparency in regard to the 
decisions being made.  The following proposal builds upon the useful work of the Committee on Anti-Dumping Practices with respect to this question in th e late 1990s and the early years of this decade.  
 
Proposed Amendments to the Agreements    
(A) In regard to the initiation of an investigation: 
 While retaining the current requirements a nd the chapeau to the current text of ADA 
Article 12.1.1, add to the Article by repl acing (i) through (vi) with the following: 
(i) a description of the product under investigati on to which the initiation applies, including 
its tariff classification for Customs purposes,  the name of the exporting country or 
countries, and the names of the known exporte rs and foreign producers of the product 
under investigation;   TN/RL/GEN/21 
Page 2  
 
 (ii) information concerning the domestic like product and domestic industry, including the 
names of the domestic producers of the like product submitting and supporting the 
application, the names of other domestic producers of the like product insofar as they are known to the investigating authorities and, if relevant, information regarding any 
exclusion of producers for the purposes of defining the domestic industry; 
(iii) information concerning the procedural background of the investigation, including the date 
on which  the application was received, the date on which  the application was found to 
be in compliance with the requirements of Artic le 5 as to the allegations of dumping and 
injury and the determination of industry s upport, and the date of initiation of the 
investigation; 
(iv) the basis on which dumping is alleged in the application; 
(v) a summary of the factors on which the allegation of injury is based, and; 
(vi) information relevant to th e continuation of the investigation, including next steps in the 
process, and related time frames, and information concerning a contact to whom representations by interested parties should be directed.  
(B) In regard to the imposition of a provisional measure: 
While retaining the current requirements and the chapeau to the current text of ADA 
Article 12.2.1, add to the Article by repl acing (i) through (v) with the following: 
(i) a description of the product under investigati on, including its tariff classification for 
Customs purposes, the name of the exporting country or countries, and the names of the known exporters and foreign producers of  the product under investigation;   
(ii) the periods of data collection for both the preliminary dumping and preliminary injury 
analysis, and an explanation of the ratio nale for the selection of such periods;  
(iii) the margins of dumping established and inform ation concerning the calculation of the 
dumping margin, including information regarding: normal values, including whether normal values were based on sales in the home market, sales to a third market or 
constructed normal value; export prices, incl uding, if appropriate, the adjustments related 
to the construction of export price; th e methodology of comparisons including 
adjustments, and, if appropriate, information on any application of sampling; 
(iv) information concerning any situation where the determination of dumping was made on 
the basis of full or partial facts available, including information as to why resort was had 
to facts available, and what information th e authorities used to determine the dumping 
margin. The information provided should in clude, if applicable, the reasons why 
information submitted by a party was rejected in favour of recourse to facts available; 
 
(v) information concerning the domestic like product and domestic industry, including the 
names of all known domestic producers of the like product and, if relevant, information 
regarding any exclusion of producers for the purposes of defining the domestic industry; 
 (vi) information, as is reasonably av ailable, relevant to the injury determination as set out in 
Article 3, including information concerning th e domestic market for the subject imports 
and the like product, the volume and the price effects of the subject imports, the  TN/RL/GEN/21 
 Page 3 
 
 
 consequent impact of the subject imports on the domestic industry and, if relevant, the 
factors leading to a conclusion of threat of material injury; 
 
(vii) information concerning the verification of information used by the authorities, if 
undertaken; 
 
(viii) information on the provisional measures bei ng imposed, including the form, level, and  
duration of such measures;   
 
(ix) information relevant to the c ontinuation of the investigation, including next steps in the 
process, and related time frames, and information concerning a contact to whom 
representations by interested parties should be directed; and  
 
(x) information concerning the possibility for exporters to offer price undertakings.    
 
3. While the above proposals ha ve focused on ADA Article 12, they would for the most part, 
with appropriate adaptations, also be applicab le to ASCM Articles 22.2 and 22.4. However for 
Article 22.4(iii) of the ASCM, which is specific to that Agreement, Canada proposes the following 
amendments:   (iii) information concerning the establishmen t of the existence of a subsidy and the 
calculation of its amount, including, but not limited to, explanations concerning: the 
existence of a financial contribution, how the financial contribution confers a benefit 
to the recipient, including explanations c oncerning the selection of appropriate market 
benchmarks, how the subsidy is specific to certain enterprises (whether de jure  or de 
facto ), including if applicable, an explan ation of how this determination was 
established by reference to the factors enum erated in Article 2.1 (c), how the amount 
of subsidy was calculated in terms of subsid ization per unit, including explanations as 
to whether the subsidy amount was expensed in the year of receipt or allocated over 
time, and, where applicable, how the subsidy falls under the provisions of Article 3;  
 4. This paper does not purport to represent Ca nada’s final views on this matter and Canada 
reserves the right to make further proposals.  
 
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