./.RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/ADP/AHG/W/73
7 October 1999
(99-4214)
Committee on Anti-Dumping Practices
Ad Hoc Group on ImplementationOriginal:  English
PRACTICAL ISSUES AND EXPERIENCE IN PROVIDING
OPPORTUNITIES FOR INDUSTRIAL USERS AND CONSUMER
ORGANIZATIONS TO PROVIDE INFORMATION UNDER ARTICLE 6.12
Paper by Israel
The following communication, dated 7 October 1999, has been received from the Permanent
Mission of Israel.
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Article 6.12 of the Anti-Dumping Agreement requires that anti-dumping authorities provide
an opportunity for industrial users of the product under investigation and consumer organizations to
provide information which is relevant to the investigation.
We feel that it would be very useful to examine the practices of other Members concerning
this topic with a view to developing some understanding for common application of Article 6.12 of
the Agreement.
The following is a description of how the Israeli authorities accommodate this requirement
into their anti-dumping procedures:
Industrial users and consumer organizations although not considered parties to the
investigation are afforded opportunities to submit their views and comments on the various aspects of
the investigation.
The comments submitted by the industrial users and consumer organizations usually relate to
issues of injury and causality based on their market experience with the domestic industry.  The
remarks also tend to relate to the likely anti-competitive effects of the duty on the industry and on the
negative effects on the downstream industry.
Past experience has shown that the industrial users take a more active part in the investigation
than do the representative consumer organization.
Although questionnaires are not circulated to th e industrial users and consumer organizations,
they, on their own initiative, may submit in writing their comments and views of the various aspects
of the investigation.
The first opportunity for submitting comments is at the first stage of the procedure, namely,
during the investigation carried out by the Commissioner.  The Commissioner in his final findings
which are submitted to the Advisory Committee, wi ll include a summary of the information andG/ADP/AHG/W/73
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comments received from all parties including those received from industrial users and representative
consumer organizations.
The next stage of the procedure involves the hearing before the Advisory Committee, which
may, upon request, hear the comments of the industrial users and representative consumerorganizations.  The Advisory Committee may include in its recommendations to the Minister
comments concerning the views raised by these parties.
Israel has in recent years emphasized the "public interest" aspect of the anti-dumping process
while determining whether to impose a duty and at what level, and so the comments raised by the
industrial users have necessarily been taken into account by the Authorities.
The following are questions we would like to raise for further discussion concerning this
topic:
1. Are the industrial users and consumer organizations given the right to review and copy the
non-confidential versions of all documents submitted by the parties to the investigation?(This is relevant only to Members who do not maintain a full public file of all documents
relating to the investigation.)
2. At what stage of the investigation do the Members provide opportunities for the industrial
users and consumer organizations to provide information?  Do they have a right to be heard aswell as submit written information?
3. Are there Members who maintain a verification procedure for verifying the factual
information submitted by these parties?
4. Do those Members which do not include a public interest clause in their anti-dumping
regimes also provide an opportunity to industrial users and consumer organizations to provide
information and to what extent, if any, do their views have on the determinations made by the
Authorities?
5. To what extent, do those Members who do include a public interest clause in their anti-
dumping regimes, consider, the information and comments received by the Industrial usersand consumer organizations in their final determinations.  It may be useful to provide specific
examples of cases where those comments actually had an impact on the final determination.
6. Do Members affording opportunities for industrial users to comment also include the
suppliers of the raw material as parties who may also provide relevant information to the
Authorities?
7. Is there any distinction drawn between the preliminary and final determination in respect to
the relevance of the information provided by the users or consumers?
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