RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/ADP/AHG/R/17 
6 September 2005 
 (05-3867) 
Committee on Anti-Dumping Practices 
Working Group on Implementation  
 
 
 
SUMMARY REPORT OF THE MEETING OF THE 
WORKING GROUP ON IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 
COMMITTEE ON ANTI-DUMPING PRACTICES, 
5 APRIL 2005 
 
Note by the Secretariat  
  
1. The Working Group on Implementation ("the Group") met in formal session on 5 April 2005 
and held substantive discussions concerning the topics referred to it by  the Committee on Anti-
Dumping Practices ("the Committee") on May 2003.
1  The Group adopted the agenda for the meeting, 
which had been circulated in WTO/AIR/2538, dated 23 March 2005. 
2. The Chairman, (Mr. Ernesto Fernández, Costa Rica) noted that the Group would take up the 
four topics for discussion in the order set forth in the agenda, as adopted.  These were:  (a) calculation 
of normal value;  (b) conduct of verification;  (c) judicial, arbitral or administrative review;  and 
(d) future work of the Working Group. 
3. Turning to the first item on the agenda, calcu lation of normal value: export prices to third 
countries or constructed normal va lue – Article 2.2, the Chairman reminded Members that the Group 
had started its discussion of this topic during the Oc tober 2003 meeting.  The United States introduced 
its paper, which was made available at th e autumn 2004 meeting as a room-document and 
subsequently circulated as document G/ADP/AHG/W /166.  During the ensuing discussions, a number 
of issues were raised, such as:  the criteria used when deciding which third country to use, in 
particular when the decision is taken to select as third country the country representing the highest export volume; whether the views of the exporters  were taken into consideration when deciding 
whether to use the domestic market of the expor ting country or exports to a third country for 
calculating the normal value; whether the views of exporters were taken in to consideration when 
deciding which third country would be used; and the possibility that the selection of the third country 
might, in certain circumstances, be made at a late stage in the process.  Some Members also expressed 
interest in the practice of selecting the third coun try on the basis of the maximum possible number of 
identical matches between models sold to the th ird country and the importing Member to minimize 
the number of adjustments to be made. 
4. The next item discussed was the conduct of veri fication – Article 6.7.  Egypt and Pakistan 
introduced their papers, circulated as doc uments G/ADP/AHG/W/170 and G/ADP/AHG/W/171, 
respectively.  The discussions focused on:  whet her verification takes place before or after the 
preliminary determination is made; the duration of the verification visit; the size of the verification 
team; use of non-governmental experts; verificat ion of the domestic industry of the importing 
Member; criteria used when deciding not to ve rify all exporters; notice of deficient responses; 
opportunity to submit supplemental information; and the decision not to verify responses to 
                                                     
 
1 The list of topics referred to the Working Group was circulated to Members in document 
G/ADP/W/433. G/ADP/AHG/R/17 
Page 2  
 
 questionnaires where incomplete.  Issues such as whet her a separate disclosure of the results of the 
verification is made, and if so, when, and whether exporters are granted an opportunity to comment on 
the verification report were also raised.  Assistance to enterprises in developing Members was also raised:  A comment was made that it is not necessa rily all companies in developing Members which 
might be in need of assistance, but that small companies in developed Members might also need 
assistance - many companies in developing countries are large and highly sophisticated multinational 
companies, whereas many companies in developed Members are also very small with very limited 
resources to deal with anti-dumping investigations.  As Pakistan did not have an expert available 
during the meeting, its paper will be on the agenda of the Group's next meeting for further discussion.  
Members agreed to continue discussions on this t opic at that meeting, and the Chairman urged 
Members to contribute papers on it, including pape rs describing their own practice in this regard. 
5. The Group then discussed judicial, arbitral or administrative review – Article 13.  India 
introduced its paper, circulated as document G/AD P/AHG/W/169.  Members were interested to learn 
more about the nature of the tribunal, its compositi on, who appoints the members of the tribunal, and 
the required profile of the judicial and the "technical" member, that is, whether they are required to 
have a background in anti-dumping, etc.  Apart from st anding requirements to bring an appeal and the 
duration of the review process, issues such as wh ether the tribunal and/or courts have remand 
authority or whether they have the power to amend/ annul decisions were also raised.  The following 
issues, inter alia , also were raised:  What is the meaning of  the term "natural justice"?  Can only final 
measures be challenged?  Who are the "affected pers ons"?  Do only the tribunal and the courts have 
access to the confidential record?  Are amicus curiae briefs allowed?   
6. In concluding the discussions on the four topics before the Group, the Chairman urged other 
significant users of anti-dumping, which had not explained their practices in these areas, to submit papers on them for discussion at the Group's next meeting. 
7. The Group then turned to the final item on the ag enda, namely, the future work of the Group.  
The Chairman commented that the four topics cu rrently before the Group for discussion had been on 
the agenda for four meetings a nd that, although the discussion had been useful, it had been based on a 
limited number of papers submitted by a very limited number of Members.  Since the previous 
meeting of the Group, and as envisaged during that meeting, the Chairman had conducted informal 
consultations with a number of delegations on problems which might be preventing them from 
submitting papers.  He was therefore encouraged th at three of the four papers discussed during the 
meeting had been submitted by relatively new user s of the instrument, and expressed the view that 
Members might wish to consider extending the current process of encouraging Members to submit 
papers, including papers describing their practices.   
8. Concerning such descriptive papers, some Me mbers were of the view that although 
transparency was very important, the mandate of  the Group was to develop recommendations on the 
topics referred to it by the Anti-Dumping Practices  Committee and suggested that the Group consider 
developing recommendations for some of the topics th at were before it, in particular relating to 
Article 6.7 regarding verification.  Other Member s were of the view that discussing the different 
practices was in itself a very useful exercise, a lthough it might not lead to a draft recommendation to 
the Committee on all the topics before it.  Member s welcomed the paper submitted by Hong Kong, 
China, circulated as document G/ADP/AHG/W/167, wh ich contained a list of questions which could 
be used as a basis for Members' submissions, as an effort to encourage more Members to participate 
in the process, either by submitting written submissi ons, or by making oral contributions explaining 
their own practices.  Members also welcomed the doc ument prepared by the Secretariat setting out the 
topics previously referred to the Group for discu ssion, together with references to documents 
submitted on each topic, and the result of the discussi ons regarding each topic, circulated as document 
G/ADP/AHG/W/168.  G/ADP/AHG/R/17 
 Page 3 
 
 
 9. In conclusion, the Chairman noted that the Group had had a very useful fourth round of 
discussions of three of the four new topics and enc ouraged Members to submit papers on these topics 
for discussion at the next meeting.  The Group agreed  that its next meeting would be scheduled, in 
conjunction with the next regular meeting of the Co mmittee, on 31 October 2005, and that papers and 
other submissions for the Group's next meeting should be transmitted to the Secretariat no later than 
19 September 2005. 
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