. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/RL/GEN/42 
13 May 2005 
 (05-1957) 
Negotiating Group on Rules Original:   English 
  
 
ILLUSTRATIVE LIST OF BENCHMARKS FOR  
DETERMINATIONS OF MATERI AL INJURY AND CAUSATION 
Communication from Japan  
  
 The following communication, dated 12 May 2005, is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of Japan.   The submitting delegation has requested that th is paper, which was submitted to the Rules 
Negotiating Group as an informal document (JOB(05)/78), also be circulated as a formal document. 
 
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  This paper is intended for discussion regarding benchmarks to provide authorities with more 
specific guidance in making injury determinations .  Since Members had useful and constructive 
discussion on previous papers proposed by the FANs  (JOB(04)/183 and JOB(05)/46) in the informal 
meeting of the Negotiating Group on Rules, this  paper should be seen as a complement to the 
previous papers.   An illustrative list of benchmarks for injury determinations could be useful in providing 
authorities with more specific guidance and woul d make determinations more predictable for 
exporters.  Such benchmarks also  help investigation authorities through providing clearer guidance for 
injury determination.  This list illustrates certain ty pical cases in which there can be a presumption of 
no material injury or causation and authorities may not  find material injury or causation in the absence 
of justification sufficient to overcome such a presumption. 
1   
 
 The rebuttable presumptions contained in this lis t shall not be interpreted that the authorities 
can skip, in any way, an overall assessment with re gard to all relevant economic factors and indices 
including those listed in Article 3.4, or the causatio n analysis whether the dumped imports in and of 
themselves are causing material injury.  The list shall also not be interpreted to imply that a rebuttable 
presumption of injury exists in cases other than  the circumstances set forth in the list.  
 
 This illustrative list corresponds to  the FAN’s proposal that a determination of injury shall be 
based upon separate determination of  material injury and causation. 
                                                      
1 We are ready to make further elaboration on thes e proposals as appropriate. We are open to discuss 
additional ideas on such rebuttable presumptions and we also reserve the right to make additional proposals to 
this list. TN/RL/GEN/42 
Page 2  
 
Material injury – rebuttable presumptions   
  The investigating authorities shall presume that  there is no material injury in any of the 
circumstances set forth below.  In such circums tances, the investigating authorities shall not 
find material injury unless there is sufficient  justification to overcome the presumption.  
 
 The domestic industry’s operating profits have  increased and the market share has been 
maintained or increased during the investigation period. 
 
Causation – rebuttable presumptions:   
 
 The investigating authorities shall presume  that the dumped imports are not causing 
material injury to the domestic industry when any of the following conditions are present.  
When any of these conditions are demonstrated, investigating authorities shall not find that 
material injury is caused by dumped imports unl ess there is sufficient justification to overcome 
the presumption.   
(i) The volume of increase in non-dumped imports of the product concerned has significantly 
exceeded the volume of increase in dumped imports during the investigation period. 
 (ii) Prices of the dumped imports have been in creasing while there has been no undercutting and 
the market share of the dumped imports has b een declining during the investigation period. 
 
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