WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/ADP/21 
31 October 2011 
 (11-5484) 
Committee on Anti-Dumping Practices  
  
 
CHAIR'S REPORT TO THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN GOODS 
ON TRANSITIONAL REVIEW OF CHINA 
 
 1. The Committee on Anti-Dumping Practices undert ook the ninth and final Transitional Review 
of China pursuant to Paragraph 18 of the Protocol  on the Accession of the People's Republic of China 
(WT/L/432) at its meeting of 24-25 October 2011.  2. There is no information specified for subm ission to the Committee under Annex 1A to the 
Protocol.  No written questions or comments in th e context of the Transitional Review relating to 
China's implementation of the Agreement on Implem entation of Article VI of the General Agreement 
on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (the Anti-dumping Agre ement) were submitted by any Member.     
 3. The statements made at the meeting of 24- 25 October 2011, at which the Transitional Review 
was item D of the agenda, are reflected in the mi nutes of the meeting, which will be circulated as 
document G/ADP/M/41.  The relevant paragraphs of  the minutes, which reflect the statements made 
and the discussion at the meeting, are annexed.   
 G/ADP/21 
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  Excerpt from the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Committee on Anti-Dumping Practices 
held on 24-25 October 2011, to be circulated as document G/ADP/M/41 
 
 D. TRANSITIONAL
 REVIEW  UNDER  PARAGRAPH  18 OF THE  PROTOCOL  OF 
ACCESSION  OF THE  PEOPLE'S  REPUBLIC  OF CHINA  TO THE  WORLD  TRADE  
ORGANIZATION 
1. The Chair recalled that pursuant to Paragraph 18 of the Protocol of Accession of the People's 
Republic of China to the World Trade Organization,  all subsidiary bodies, including the Committee, 
"which have a mandate covering China's commitme nts under the WTO Agreement or [the] Protocol 
shall, within one year after accession, review, as appropriate to their mandate, the implementation by 
China of the WTO Agreement and of the related provis ions of [the] Protocol".  China was to provide 
relevant information in advance of the review, in cluding information specified in Annex 1A to the 
Protocol.  China could also raise issues relating to any reservations under Section 17 or to any other 
specific commitments made by other Members in the Protocol, in subsidiary bodies which had a 
relevant mandate.  The Committee was required promp tly to report the results of the review to the 
Council for Trade in Goods.  The review was to take  place after accession in each year for eight years, 
with a final review in year 10 or at an ea rlier date decided by the General Council.   
 2. There were no procedures set out for the conduct of the transitional review in the Protocol, 
except that China was to provide relevant informati on in advance of the review.  In this regard the 
Chair noted that there was no information sp ecified for submission to the Committee under 
Annex 1A.    3. The Chair noted that the no delegation had s ubmitted written questions or comments in the 
context of the transitional review.  The Chair invite d Members wishing to pose oral questions or make 
any general statements at the meeting, to proceed.   
 4. The representative of the United States stated that when China signed its protocol of 
Accession to the WTO ten years ago, it agreed to  an annual TRM to be conducted before sixteen 
committees and councils each fall for eight years, with a final review by year ten. He indicated that as 
this was the year ten, the United States would like, for this final review, to share its observations on 
China's first ten years of the WTO Membership. 
5. The representative of the United States acknowledge d that over the past ten years, China had 
made significant progress in developing a legal framework for its anti-dumping regime and had 
professed its commitment to pursuing the principles of  transparency and fair procedures set forth in 
the AD Agreement. While there had been numerous  improvements in China's anti-dumping practice 
since the first TRM in 2002, China had more to  do to make its anti-dumping investigative and 
decision-making processes fully transparent and procedur ally fair for all parties, as envisioned by the 
AD Agreement. 
6. In recent years, China had also initiated cer tain anti-dumping investigations under troubling 
circumstances. Some of these investigations had generated WTO disputes in which multiple WTO violations had been alleged, including claims of inconsistency not only with fundamental obligations 
relating to transparency and procedural fairness, but  also key aspects of the injury determinations. The 
United States had initiated two of those disputes, one  involving grain-oriented electrical steel (DS414) 
and the other involving broiler products (DS427).  
7. The representative of the United States enumerated  the main areas of concern, the first of 
which was the issue of transparen cy. The representative of the Unite d States indicated that China's 
Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) had devoted cons iderable effort to recruit staff for its anti- G/ADP/21 
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  dumping investigations branches, the Bureau of Fa ir Trade for Imports and Exports (BOFT) and the 
Investigation Bureau for Industry Injury (IBII). The Staff of these two agencies was talented and 
experienced in the skills required to conduct anti- dumping proceedings. BOFT and IBII also appeared 
to be proactive in training their staff and seeki ng to learn best practices from other Members through 
technical exchanges. Furthermore, BOFT and IB II had worked to put in place procedures and 
mechanisms, such as their public reading room to di sseminate case documents to interested parties. 
He added that given all of these efforts to improve its anti-dumping practice, it was disconcerting that 
MOFCPM continued to exhibit subs tantial systemic lapses in transparency in all of its anti-dumping 
proceedings. The principal concerns that the Un ited States had noted in past TRMs involved non-
confidential summaries, explanations of determinati ons and the disclosure of margin calculations and 
essential facts.       
8. Regarding inadequate non-conf idential summaries, the representative of the United States 
explained that it was the United States' understandi ng that, in many instances, Chinese petitioning 
companies did not provide MOFCOM with adequa te non-confidential summaries of its submissions, 
and that MOFCOM in turn failed to require that  reasonable non-confidential summaries be provided. 
As a result, interested parties – particularly respondent companies – had complained about being 
unable to adequately defend their interests, wh ile MOFCOM had been deprived of key rebuttal 
information needed to render the fair and objectiv e determination envisioned by the AD Agreement. 
He submitted that according to Article 6.5.1 of the AD Agreement, it was the investigating authority's 
responsibility to ensure that adequate non-confiden tial summaries were provided for any information 
considered to be proprietary in nature. This obliga tion was particularly important given that in China's 
anti-dumping practice, non-confidential summaries we re the only means by which interested parties 
might examine and evaluate submissions made by  other parties and documents generated by the 
investigating authority.     
9. The representative of the United States also re ferred to the insufficient explanation of 
disposition of parties' evidence and arguments. He  noted that both BOFT and IBII often would not 
adequately address critical arguments or evidence  put forward by interested parties in their 
preliminary and final determinati ons. Article 12.2.1 of the AD Agreement required that a notice of a 
preliminary determination "shall refer to the matter s of fact and law which have led to arguments 
being accepted and rejected." He stated that Article  12.2.2 obligated an inv estigating authority to 
include in its notice of final determination "the reasons for acceptance or rejection of relevant 
arguments or claims made by the exporters and impor ters." He submitted that failure to address issues 
and arguments raised by the parties impeded a fu ll understanding of how the investigating authority 
reached its determination. 
10. With respect to the issue of inadequate discl osure of margin calculations and essential facts, 
the representative of the United States indicated that China still needed to improve the level of detail 
provided by MOFCOM in its disclosure of dumpi ng margin calculations and its disclosure of the 
essential facts supporting the positions taken in its pr eliminary and final determinations. Lack of 
sufficient disclosure of dumping calculations ha d been a concern in every Chinese anti-dumping 
proceeding conducted to date.  Similarly, in additio n to MOFCOM's failure to provide detailed margin 
calculations to responding companies, MOFCOM repeatedly neglected to provide parties with a sufficient understanding of its basis for and calculation of all-others rate assigned to companies which 
had not participated in the investigation. More over, the all-others rates - typically assigned to 
United States' companies - appeared to be based on a dverse facts available, even in the absence of any 
evidence of non-cooperation. The all-others rates were frequently many times higher than the margins 
assigned to participating companies, thereby, effec tively, prohibiting entry to the Chinese market of 
any new United States' shippers of subject merchandise.    
11. The second area of concern pertained to the need fo r fair consideration of hearing requests. In 
this context, the representative of the United States submitted that China needed to improve G/ADP/21 
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  MOFCOM's use of fair procedures for all parti es involved in an anti-dumping proceeding. This 
included, but was not limited to, timely access to ad ministrators and favourable consideration of 
hearing requests, rather than resorting to private me etings with selected parties as a principal means to 
obtain views of parties. He recalled that the United States had repeatedly urged China to provide all interested parties with the opportunity to raise issues in an open and transparent setting and at an early 
stage of every proceeding, rather than relying on  private meetings with selected parties as the 
principal means of listening to concerns and arguments  of all the parties. He reiterated that interested 
parties not present for private meetings should be quickly informed of the matters discussed at those meetings, and should be given an opportunity to present their rebuttals in accordance with Article 6.3 
of the AD Agreement.          
12. The third area referred to by the United Stat es related to the need for expiry review 
regulations.  The representative of the United States submitted that China had yet to issue regulations 
and procedures governing the conduct and requireme nts for expiry reviews, thereby depriving 
Members of the ability to confirm that China's e xpiry reviews were being conducted according to the 
standards of the AD Agreement. As China's anti-dum ping regime had matured, many of its measures 
had reached the five-year mark, and had been the subject of expiry reviews. Despite repeated 
assurances that it was preparing regulations governi ng the conduct of expiry reviews, however, to 
date, no such regulations had been comple ted or notified to the Committee.     
13. The fourth issue raised was the issue of defi ciencies in affirmative injury and causal link 
decisions. The representative of the United States expressed a continued concern regarding what he 
described as the apparent fundamental deficiencies  in China's affirmative injury and causal link 
decisions, which often cited either no evidence at all or evidence that had not adequately addressed 
the arguments made. He explained that the United States had often expressed its concerns that conclusory statements without evidentiary support would not constitute positive evidence within the 
meaning of Article 3.1 of the AD Agreement. In  particular, the WTO's anti-dumping rules required 
the investigating authority to make available to all interested parties details of the factual basis and 
reasoning supporting the investigating authority's decisions, as well as complete accounts of the 
petitioners' allegations and briefs. He reiterated that  deficiencies in the apparent bases for China's 
injury determinations had been an on-going con cern throughout the history of China's anti-dumping 
investigations.      
14. On the topic of inadequate communica tion between MOFCOM and Chinese customs 
authorities, which was the fifth area of concern referred to, the representative of the United States 
recalled that the United States had repeatedly urged Ch ina to refine and make available to the public 
the process by which MOFCOM and the Chinese custom s officials at China's ports confirmed the 
precise merchandise subject to each anti-demoing measure and the anti-dumping duty rates to each importer, as well as the process by which parties might address associated problems. He called to China's attention Article 5.9 of the AD Agreemen t, which provided that anti-dumping proceedings 
were not to hinder customs clearance. He adde d that the United States has noted reports from 
responding parties regarding Chinese customs authorities either assessing anti-dumping duties on merchandise not subject to a measure or imposi ng seemingly unreasonable burdens of proof before 
allowing entry of non-subject merchandise. Situations continued to arise in which the lack of uniform, 
published procedures needlessly hindered the resolution of disputes.    
15. Finally, the representative of the United States t ook up the issue of incomplete notification of 
legislation and regulations. He stated that in past  TRMs, the United States had noted that China had 
not appeared to have notified all relevant legi slation to the Committee. For example, certain 
regulations addressing anti-dumping tax rebate, review of new exporters, and price commitments, 
were made available for public comment in 2009, but had yet to be notified to the Committee. In 
addition, the United States believed that there have been certain updates, revisions, or supplements to 
China's regulations relating to anti-dumping inv estigations, for example, provisions regarding  G/ADP/21 
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  procedures for filing requests for ad ministrative reconsideration, that had not been notified to the 
Committee.   
16. In conclusion, the representative of the United St ates thanked China for the efforts that it had 
made over the last ten years to conform its an ti-dumping practice to its obligations under the AD 
Agreement. Going forward, he urged China to cons ider carefully the outstanding concerns that other 
Members had raised about MOFCOM's anti-dumping practice and take steps to address them. He 
indicated that the United States would continue to  engage China, both at the WTO and bilaterally, 
until these outstanding issues were satisfactorily resolved.  
17. The representative of Japan welcomed this oppor tunity to review Chin a's implementation of 
the WTO Agreement. She indicated that China had a longer history as a user of anti-dumping 
measures than as a Member of the WTO. In recent y ears, China had become one of the top five users 
of the anti-dumping measures. She explained that in spite of its extensive experience as a user of anti-
dumping measures, there still remained some concerns with respect to the investigations and decisions 
undertaken by China's investigating authority,  MOFCOM, from the viewpoint of due process and 
transparency. She indicated that it was essential to ensure due process and transparency in order to 
avoid unwarranted and unnecessary use of anti-dum ping measures. She urged China to further 
improve its anti-dumping inves tigations in this regard. 
18. The representative of Japan highlighted two specifi c points. First, she indicated that Japan had 
serious concerns with regard to the injury determinations by MOFCOM. In making injury 
determinations, it was essential to separate and dis tinguish the injurious effects of dumping from those 
of other factors, and to provide full explanation of their analysis.  Second, she had also strong 
concerns with regard to the disclosure of essentia l facts, especially the disclosure of margin 
calculations by MOFCOM. There was no question that disclosure of how the margins were calculated, including the calculation methodology and th e data, especially the source of facts available 
used, was indispensable for the interested parties to  effectively defend their interests. She explained 
that in some investigations pertaining to Japanese products, MOFCOM had not used the data provided 
by the interested parties without any compelling reason to disregard it. Moreover, the calculation 
methodology and the source of facts available were not  disclosed at all which left interested parties 
unable to fully defend their interests or to understand the basis for the decisions made.  
19. In conclusion, the representative of Japan reite rated the necessity to further improve China's 
anti-dumping investigations in the areas of due pr ocess and transparency, especially in the disclosure 
of essential facts to the interested parties; accountab ility of both dumping and injury determinations; 
and providing sufficient time and opportunity to the inte rested parties to present their comments.      
20. The representative of the European Union noted that China had significantly stepped up its 
anti-dumping activity over the last three years in gene ral, but had also targeted the European Union's 
imports. She explained that the European Union did not contest the right of China to make use of the anti-dumping instrument, but was specifically concer ned by the nature and the standards applied in 
the Chinese proceedings. She noted that China ha d joined the WTO for a number of years, had 
become a regular user of the anti-dumping instrument , and it was expected to be in a position to apply 
high and strict standards for its trade remedies invest igations. She was of the view that some areas had 
witnessed significant improvements, but, as othe r WTO Members had observed, a number of 
shortcomings still existed.   
21. In particular, the representative of the European  Union considered that investigations were 
often initiated on weak grounds and th at they had frequently followed the imposition of anti-dumping 
measures against Chinese exports of similar or compar able products, or on a comparable basis (e.g. 
measures imposed against China on grounds of th reat of injury would be followed by Chinese 
measures on the same grounds). She believed that this  could not be a coincidence. In addition, the G/ADP/21 
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  lack of transparency remained a serious concern.  As a result,  exporters very often could not 
adequately exercise their rights of defence. More sp ecifically, the level and quality of disclosure must 
be substantially improved with regard to the essen tial dumping and injury elements, and China should 
refrain from all too often label information as c onfidential with an absence or an inadequate 
meaningful summary of the confidential information.  
22. Moreover, the representative of the Europ ean Union had also expressed concern over the 
standards of the injury analysis ca rried out by the Chinese investigating authority. In this context, she 
submitted that the price analysis was often simplis tic (no price undercutting analysis, amongst others), 
all of the injury factors were not always analysed  in sufficient details, and that there should be a 
consistent and objective assessment of all such factors. 
23. To sum up, the representative of the European  Union reiterated the importance of improving 
all of the above aspects in anti-dumping investiga tions.  In particular, anti-dumping proceedings 
should be initiated only if all the WTO conditions we re met - regardless of any retaliatory motive and 
that the analysis and final decisions should be st rict and objective by safeguarding all the parties' 
rights of defence and substantially improving transp arency and substantive analysis of injury and 
causal link.  
24. The representative of Canada appreciated China' s continued participation in the TRM as well 
as the issues brought to the attention of the Co mmittee by Members. He indicated that without 
commenting on the specifics of the statements made  by Members, he shared the overall message of 
those statements. He acknowledged China's contin ued efforts to conform to its commitments under 
the AD Agreement and supported and encouraged futu re actions to be taken by China in order to 
further improve transparency and due process in conducting anti-dumping investigations.    
25. The representative of Mexico acknowledged the headway which China had made in 
developing a legal framework for its anti-dumping regi me as well as the efforts it made in order to 
comply with the principles of transparency and rul es set out in the AD Agreement. However, he was 
of the view that China's trade remedies measures should be fully tr ansparent. In this respect, he 
indicated that the Mexican authorities had encounter ed some difficulties in clearly identifying the 
Chinese legislation. He specifically referred to MOFCOM's website which contained very limited 
information with respect to anti-dumping law and regulations as well as limited information on the 
procedures carried out by the investigating authoriti es. He shared the concerns other Members raised 
and submitted that although there was a vacuum, su ch vacuum could become an opportunity to move 
on to greater transparency in information pertaini ng to China's trade remedies. He hoped that China 
would undertake the necessary actions to notify all its legislations to the Committee and to make it 
available to the public at large.      
26. The representative of Korea reiterated what ot her Members had said regarding China's anti-
dumping system. He appreciated China' s efforts to improve its systems, its law and regulations as well 
as its practice. He encouraged China to improve its  anti-dumping system, especially with respect to 
transparency.  
27. The representative of China thanked all delega tions that made comments regarding China's 
anti-dumping regime and practices and appreciated Me mbers' constant attention and interest in 
China's anti-dumping practices during the past ten years throughout the TRM discussions conducted in the Committee. She indicated th at China had made continued and persistent efforts to fulfil its 
commitments made upon its accession to the WTO, a nd that the past ten years' discussion in the 
Committee had witnessed the great progress achieved by  China in developing a mature legal anti-
dumping framework consistent with the AD Agreem ent. She explained that the regulations on anti-
dumping revised on 31 March 2004, together with all the departmental rules on anti-dumping  G/ADP/21 
 Page 7 
 
 
  measures that China notified to the WTO Secretariat, provided a very clear and comprehensive picture 
of China's anti-dumping legal framework. 
28. The representative of China submitted that the p ast ten years' discussion in the Committee had 
also witnessed China's commitment to pursue the principle of transparency and fair procedures set 
forth in the AD Agreement. Also, as might have b een noted by Members, China had been seriously 
fulfilling its notification obligation pursuant to th e AD Agreement, mainly legislative notifications, 
semi-annual reports and preliminary and final anti-dumping actions notif ications. In this respect, she 
confirmed that all decisions pertaining to initiati ons, preliminary and final determinations were all 
posted on the Chinese Government's official website and that interested parties as well as the WTO were informed about such decisions without delay. 
29. The representative of China explained that Mexi co could get all the information concerning 
China's anti-dumping-related law and regulations on  that website. On what was indicated by the 
United States regarding China's non-notification of  certain regulations addressing anti-dumping tax 
rebate, new exporter review and price commitments, she confirmed that, according to her information, 
China had notified all the related departmental ru les early in 2002, soon after its accession to the 
WTO, including provisional rules on refund of an ti-dumping duties, provisional rules on new shipper 
reviews pertaining to anti-dumping investigations and provisional rules on price undertakings in anti-
dumping investigations. She added that the three ment ioned departmental rules were still in force and 
there had been no revisions adopted since.       
30. The representative of China noted that as indi cated by the European Union and Japan, China 
had recently become a regular user of anti-dumping measures. However, according to the statistics 
issued by the WTO, China had also been the numb er one target of anti-dumping investigations for 
fourteen years; i.e. for more than China's year s as a WTO Member. Even under such circumstances, 
China had always been taking a serious, prudent and responsible attitude towards the use of anti-
dumping measures and that China's practice of anti-dum ping investigations would remain transparent, 
objective, fair and rules-based in compliance with  China's antidumping regulations and rules, as well 
as the AD Agreement. 
31. The representative of China confirmed that follo wing this final transitional review of China 
by the Committee, China would continue to actively engage in the activities of this Committee, with 
the most open and cooperative spirit. She stated th at anti-dumping would remain an area where not 
only China, but also other Members had more to do and that China would look forward to exchanging views in the future with other Members, under the regular mechanis m of the Committee, in order to 
improve each other's anti-dumping practices and try to make such practices transparent and 
procedurally fair as required by the AD Agreement.               
32. The Chair thanked the delegations for their pa rticipation in the exchange.  He especially 
thanked the delegation of China for its preparati on and for the information and answers that it had 
provided.  He equally thanked those Members that  had undertaken to submit written questions and 
had taken part in the discussion.   
33. Concerning the required report to the Council for Trade in Goods in respect of this ninth and 
final transitional review, the Chair noted that the Protocol contained no gui delines for these reports.  
He recalled that in the past, the Chair of the Comm ittee, acting on his or her own responsibility, had 
prepared a brief, factual report, with references to the documents concerned, and attaching the portion 
of the minutes of the meeting which related to this transitional review.  The Chair suggested 
proceeding again on that basis.   
 34. The Committee so decided.
   
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