./.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/GC/W/235/Rev.1
12 July 1999
(99-2874)
General Council Original:  English
PREPARATIONS FOR THE 1999 MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of the GATT 1994
Proposal under Paragraph 9(a)(i) of the Geneva Ministerial Declaration
Communication from Korea
Revision
The following communication, dated 9 July 1999, has been received from the Permanent
Mission of Korea.
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Background
1. The WTO Anti-Dumping Agreement is generally considered to be an improvement over the
Tokyo Round Code, as it brought new provisions that clarified some of the ambiguities contained in
the Code and somewhat lessened the possibility of misuse of anti-dumping measures.  However, the
current Anti-Dumping Agreement retains a number of shortcomings that have generated problemsover the past years.  Ambiguities remain and can create distortions, sometimes opening the door for
abuse.
2. The recent overall increase in the use of anti-dumping measures has been accompanied by a
rise in disputes over the compatibility of certain national anti-dumping measures with the WTO anti-
dumping regime.  Both the increase in the use of anti-dumping actions and the rise in disputes are, inall likelihood, corollaries to the ambiguities contained in the Agreement.  Both are also partly caused
by the rising demand for protection by some specific industries from trade liberalization and market
opening set in motion after the conclusion of th e Uruguay Round.  With low industrial tariffs now
mostly prevailing – and thus much less useful to provide requested protection – governments are
tempted to exploit the ambiguities and flaws in the Agreement to assuage groups pursuing aprotectionist agenda.  To prevent abuse and reduce the number of disputes, therefore, Korea believes
that the Agreement should be reviewed and appropriately amended so as to bring necessary
clarifications and reduce the size of “grey areas” that permit a wide range of conflicting
interpretations.
3. To address these grey areas, the Committee on Anti-Dumping Practices has launched the
Ad-Hoc Group on Implementation, which has produced and adopted several recommendations for the
Committee.  Some of these recommendations should be well taken into account to improve the
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4. In addition to embodying these recommendations, the Anti-Dumping Agreement, like all
international trade rules, should reflect changes in  the world trade environment.  Important changes
such as increased cross-border activities of multinational enterprises, expanding regional trade
arrangements, the creation of harmonized rules of origin and the transfer of production facilities to
developing countries affect the way multilateral anti-dumping rules function.  Hence it is essential thata review of the Anti-Dumping Agreement also include a thorough analysis of the implications of such
changes for the current WTO anti-dumping regime.
5. In this regard, the anti-circumvention is one of  the important issues to all Members.  This
issue has been discussed for the last two years as  a built-in agenda arising from the Uruguay Round.
However, the discussion in an Informal Group under the Committee on Anti-Dumping Practices has
not been fruitful due to the wide differences am ong Members’ views.  Given the growing importance
of anti-circumvention, new impetus should be given to the related debate.
Proposal
6. Because a review of the Anti-Dumping Agreement will necessitate an appropriate multilateral
setting and probably intense negotiations, Korea believes that the next round of multilateral trade
negotiations would be the ideal forum to deal with such review.
7. At this stage, Korea’s proposal is twofold:
- Negotiations for reviewing the Anti-Dumping Agreement should be conducted in the
new round, with a view to preventing abuse of the anti-dumping measures as well as
reflecting changes in the world trade environment, thereby achieving a new balance
of interests among all Members.
- Among the various areas to be tackled, Korea proposes that at least in the areas of
initiation of investigation and review procedures, further clarification be made and
new disciplines be established to avoid unnecessary trade obstacles caused by
unjustified anti-dumping actions.
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