G/ADP/Q1/ARE/4  
G/SCM/Q1/ARE/4  
G/SG/Q1/ARE/4  
 
10 October  2019 
(19-6554) Page: 1/4 
Comm ittee on Anti -Dumping Practices  
Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures 
Committee on Safeguards  Original: English  
 
  
NOTIFICATION OF LAWS AND REGULATIONS UNDER  
ARTICLES 18.5, 32.6  AND 12.6 OF THE AGREEMENTS  
REPLIES TO QUESTIONS POSED BY THE UNITED STATES1 REGARDING  
THE NOTIFICATION OF THE UNITED ARAB EMIR ATES2 
The following c ommunication, dated 9 October  2019, is being circulated at the requ est of the 
Delegation of the United Arab Emirates.  
 
_______________  
 
 
The United Arab Emirates thanks the United States for their questions regarding the notification of 
Council of Ministers Decision No. (8) for the Year 2018  (hereinafter  Decision No. (8) ), and provides 
the following answers :  
 
Question 1  
 
Section II, Articl e 8 of Decision No. (8)  discusses the records that the investigating 
authority will maintain during the course of a proceeding. Please clarify the following:  
 
a. Will only those parties that registered as interested parties to the investigation 
have access to the non -confidential record or will those records be publicly 
available for examination?  
b. How will parties access the non -confidential record for purposes of copying and 
review?  
c. Will any parties, with the exception of the investigating authority, have access to 
documents in the confidential record of a case? If so, please explain which parties 
will have access, the process to grant access, and the requirements imposed to 
ensure the safekeeping of the confidential records by parties.  
d. Will the invest igating authority maintain an index of all case file records for both 
the non -confidential and confidential records for interested parties and/or the 
public to review?  
Reply  
 
a. Only those parties that registered as interested parties to the investigation ha ve access to 
the non -confidential record.  
b. Interested parties to the investigation who have access to the non -confidential record can 
review the record and take notes but without copying.  
c. No one of the parties, with the exception of the investigating auth ority, has access to 
documents in the confidential record of a case.  
                                                
1 G/ADP/Q1/ARE/3 - G/SCM/Q1/ARE/3 - G/SG/Q1/ARE/3.   
2 G/ADP/N/1/ARE/2/Suppl.1  - G/SCM/N/1/ARE/2/Suppl.1  - G/SG/N/1/ARE/2/Suppl.1 
(dated  5 October  2018).  G/ADP/Q1/ARE/4 • G/SCM/Q1/ARE/4 • G/SG/Q1/ARE/4  
 
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  d. The investigating authority maintains an index of all case file records for both the non -
confidential and confidential records.  
Question 2  
 
Section II, Article 12, paragraph 1 indicates that interested parties are provided no more  
than 40 days to provide a response to the initial questionnaire issued in an antidumping 
or countervailing duty. The Article 6.1.1 of the Agreement on Implementation of Article 
VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (AD Agreement) and Article 12.1.1 
of the Agreemen t on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM Agreement), specify 
that parties shall be given at least 30 days to provide a response to the initial 
questionnaire, but do not establish a limit or cap on the amount of additional time that 
may be granted by  the administering authority for an interested party to provide a 
response to the questionnaire. The 40 days noted in Article 12 of Decision No. (8)  seems 
to indicate that the administering authority's discretion to provide an extension is limited 
to 10 ad ditional days. Please clarify whether this is the case or may the administering 
authority grant parties an extension of time beyond the 40 -day time limit noted above, if 
good cause is shown by the requesting party.  
Reply  
The administering Authority can gra nt an extension of ten (10) days beyond the 40 -day time limit 
in accordance with Article 12, Section II, paragraph 1 & 2 of the Decision No )8(.  
 
The administering authority grants parties an extension of time beyond the 40 -day time limit noted 
above, if good cause is shown by the requesting party.  
 
Question 3  
 
Section II, Article 14 states that when "indicators" show that the "trend in imports of a 
product threatens to cause injury to the Domestic Industry, imports of that product may 
be subject as appropriate to a temporary surveillance procedure ... in accordance with the 
terms and procedures regulated in a Statutory Decision issued by the Council of 
Ministers" . 
 
a. Has the United Arab Emirates Council of Ministers issued a Statutory Decision for 
carrying out such surveillance, and if so, please indicate where the United Arab 
Emirates has made a copy available?  
b. Please indicate whether the United Arab Emirates has ever undertaken such 
surveillance under this text or predecessor text, and the outcome . 
c. How does the United Arab Emirates define the terms "trend" and "injury" and what 
time period and what type of information would the United Arab Emirates consider 
(or has considered in the past) in deciding whether there is a "trend" and "injury"?  
d. If the  United Arab Emirates finds that indicators show a trend in imports threatens 
to cause injury, what possible actions could the UAE take after having done so?   
Reply  
 
a. The United Arab Emirates did not issue the Council of Ministers Statutory Decision for 
carrying out the surveillance procedure.  
b. The United Arab Emirates has never undertaken the surveillance procedure under this text 
or a predecessor text.  
c. As clarified in points (a) and (b) above, the United Arab Emirates did not issue the Statutory 
Decision  to carry out the surveillance procedure and never undertaken such proceeding. 
Article 14 of the Decision No )8(. stated that such surveillance should be "carried out in 
accordance with the terms and procedures regulated in a Statutory Decision issued by t he 
Council of Ministers based on the Minister's proposal". It should be noted in this respect that 
no Ministerial proposal has been done so far for this purpose and therefore the terms "trend" 
and "injury" would be elaborated in the Statutory Decision.  G/ADP/Q1/ARE/4 • G/SCM/Q1/ARE/4 • G/SG/Q1/ARE/4  
 
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  d. The matter raised in this question will be dealt with in the Statutory Decision, which as 
explained above not issued yet and there is no proposal that has been done so far for this 
purpose. Nevertheless, it is important to note that the main purpose of the s urveillance 
procedure is to collect import data and not envisaged to constitute a standalone action on 
imports. It is thereby important to clarify in this respect that every possible action on imports 
is taken in accordance with the conditions and procedur es related to safeguards, 
countervailing or antidumping as prescribed in the Decision No )8(.  
Question 4  
 
Section II, Article 18, paragraph 2 indicates that the investigating authority may conduct 
on-the-spot verifications during the course of a trade rem edy investigation. Please clarify 
whether the investigating authority will provide an agenda or list of the information to be 
verified to the concerned company in advance of the on -the-spot verification and, if so, 
how far in advance that information will be issued to the concerned company.  
 
Reply  
 
The investigating authority will provide an agenda and the nature of the information and documents 
to be verified to the concerned company in advance of the on -the-spot verification, without 
precluding any request for further information during the visit t hat may arise from the documentary 
review itself and the conduct of the visit.  
 
The Decision No )8( does not lay any obligation on how far in advance that information will be issued 
to the concerned company before the verification visit. However, it has been the practice of the 
Investigating Authority to notify the concerned company before a period not excee ding one month.  
 
Question 5  
 
Please clarify the differences between Section II, Article 25, paragraph 1 which states, 
"Notifications, correspondences, queries and any other communications should be sent to 
known interested parties or their assigned repres entatives by registered mail which 
confirms delivery to the interested parties" and Section II, Article 25, paragraph 2 which 
states, "Notifications to the known interested parties in foreign countries should be made 
through their diplomatic representative s or authorized consulates in the Country" . Please 
confirm that the investigating authority will directly inform all interested parties of the 
essential facts under consideration and all other information related to an investigation 
relevant to the parties ' defense of their interests, including those based in foreign 
countries.  
 
Reply  
 
In accordance with the provisions of the Decision No )8(, we confirm that the investigating authority 
will directly inform all interested parties of the essential facts under  consideration and all other 
information related to an investigation relevant to the parties ' defen se of their interests, including 
those based in foreign countries.  
 
Besides, in accordance with Article 20, paragraph 3 of the Decision No )8(, the investiga ting Authority 
will provide all interested parties, including those based in foreign countries, the opportunity to 
submit their comments regarding the essential facts under consideration or any published findings 
during the investigation within a period no t exceeding fifteen (15) days of the disclosure of such 
reports.  
 
Question 6  
 
Section II, Article 72, paragraph 2 states that when determining a threat of serious injury, 
one of the factors to be considered is the "rate of increase of imports into the dome stic 
market indicating the likelihood of substantially increased imports" . Please indicate how 
this sentence is consistent with the requirement in Article 2.1 of the WTO Agreement on 
Safeguards – that a Member find that a product "is being imported into it s territory in 
such increased quantities, absolute or relative to domestic production, and under such G/ADP/Q1/ARE/4 • G/SCM/Q1/ARE/4 • G/SG/Q1/ARE/4  
 
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  conditions as to cause or threaten to cause serious injury to the domestic industry that 
produces like or directly competitive products" . 
 
Reply  
 
There is no inconsistency between the provisions in Article 72, paragraph 2 that states that when 
determining a threat of serious injury, one of the factors to be considered is the "rate of increase of 
imports into the domestic market indicating the likeli hood of substantially increased imports ". And 
the requirement in Article 2.1 of the WTO Agreement on Safeguards – that a Member find that a 
product "is being imported into its territory in such increased quantities, absolute or relative to 
domestic product ion, and under such conditions as to cause or threaten to cause serious injury to 
the domestic industry that produces like or directly competitive products ".  
 
It is important to emphasize that increased imports is an independent condition which shall be 
determined in absolute terms or in terms of imports relative to production and the increase has to 
be of such a nature, expressed in the WTO Agreement on Safeguards as "under such conditions " as 
to cause or threaten to cause serious injury to the domestic i ndustry. Thus, the general requirement 
as per Article 2.1 of the WTO Agreement on Safeguards to examine the increased quantities was 
embedded in several Articles of the Decision No )8(, inter alia, Articles 71, paragraph 1, Article 72, 
paragraph 2, A, Arti cle 73, Article 75, paragraph 1, which suggest that in all situations imports must 
have increased into its territory in such increased quantities, absolute or relative to domestic 
production, and under such conditions as to cause or threaten to cause serio us injury to the domestic 
industry that produces like or directly competitive products.  
 
However, paragraph 2 of Article 72 is not an independent condition pertaining to the examination of 
increase of imports but rather forms part of the overall threat of  serious injury to the domestic 
industry analysis. In short, paragraph 2 relating to the "rate of increase of imports into the domestic 
market indicating the likelihood of substantially increased imports " is listed among the several other 
factors to examin e the threat of serious injury to the domestic industry and not to examine the 
standalone condition of increased imports.  
 
We recall in this respect that Article 71, paragraph 1 of the Decision No )8( clearly sets forth the 
same general obligation as pres cribed in Article 2.1 of the WTO Agreement on Safeguards that "A 
safeguard measure may be applied to a product imported into the Country, irrespective of its source, 
if it is determined that such product is being imported in such increased quantities, abso lute or 
relative to domestic production, and under such conditions as to cause or threaten to cause serious 
injury to the Domestic Industry that produces like or directly competitive products ". 
 
Therefore, in absolutely no case a safeguard measure may be imposed in the absence of an increase 
in imports, as emphasized above .  
 
 
__________