WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/RL/GEN/33 
23 March 2005 
 (05-1221) 
Negotiating Group on Rules Original:   English 
  
 
PROPOSAL ON NEGLIGIBLE IMPORTS 
 
Paper by Turkey
 
  
 The following communication, dated 22 March 2005, is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of Turkey.   The submitting delegation has requested that th is paper, which was submitted to the Rules 
Negotiating Group as an informal document (JOB(05)/39), also be circulated as a formal document. 
 
_______________ 
 
Introduction
 
 
 Article 5.8 of the Anti-Dumping Agreem ent (ADA) sets out the determination of 
negligibility. Pursuant to the said Article, the volume of dumped imports shall be regarded as 
negligible, in case the volume of dumped imports from a particular country account for less than 3 per cent of imports of the like product in the impor ting Member.  Furthermore, there is an additional 
cumulation clause in the same Article, which a llows the authorities to cumulate imports from 
countries, which individually account for less than 3 per cent of imports of the like product in the 
importing Member, but collectively account for more  than 7 per cent of total imports of the like 
product in the importing Member.   Turkey considers that negligib ility is one of the important issues in the ADA for it determines 
whether the producer/exporters against whom an  anti-dumping investigation is initiated would 
continue to be subject to that investigation, or w ould be left out due to their volume of imports found 
to be negligible according to the provisions of Article 5.8.  Thus, Turkey believes that there is merit in 
improving the criteria and methodology to determine negligibility, which plays such a critical role in 
the determination of whether to initiate and conti nue or to terminate an anti-dumping investigation. 
 
Proposal-1
 
 
 Introduce in Article 5.8 a second methodology  to find out whether the volume of dumped 
imports are to be regarded as negligible, accordi ng to which negligibility shall be determined on the 
basis of apparent market share of dumped imports in the importing Member.  
 For this purpose, Turkey proposes to amend Article 5.8 as follows:  
 
“...There shall be immediate termination in  cases where the authorities determine that 
the margin of dumping is de minimis, or that the volume or the estimated market 
share  of dumped imports, actual or potential, or the injury is negligible. ….. The 
volume of dumped imports shall normally be regarded as negligible if the volume of TN/RL/GEN/33 
Page 2  
 
 dumped imports from a particular country is found to account for less than (X)
1 per 
cent of imports of the like product in the im porting Member, or if the market share of 
dumped imports is less than (Y)2 per cent ”. 
Explanation 
  In the paper numbered JOB(05)/11 by the FANs , of which Turkey is a sponsor as well, the 
criteria and methodology to determine negligib ility is discussed and certain improvements to 
Article 5.8 are proposed.  In the mentioned pape r, the sponsors propose to set the threshold of 
negligibility on the basis of the market share of dum ped imports rather than on the basis of share of 
dumped imports in total imports of the like produc t in the importing Member, which is the current 
practice under ADA provisions.  In the April 2005 NGR meeting, Turkey has presented her views on 
this proposal both orally and in written as well,  which were circulated to Members as a room 
document.  This time, Turkey submits her views in  this paper in order to continue the discussion 
Members have engaged in during the last NGR meeting.  
 Turkey believes that the methodology to determ ine negligibility on the basis of market share 
as proposed in the above-cited paper is certainly a re liable one and should be inserted into Article 5.8 
as an alternative methodology in determining neglig ibility.  This methodology would be helpful for it 
creates a direct linkage between dumped imports and domestic apparent consumption as well as the 
sales of the domestic industry.  The proposed negligibility criterion would also guarantee the termination of unnecessary and groundless investigations  in cases where the apparent market share of 
dumped imports from a particular Member is below (Y) per cent.  Authorities may determine market 
share of dumped imports at the initiation of an inves tigation on the basis of the data available at that 
time.  However, as the investigation progresses, ther e might be additional or revised data on apparent 
consumption.  Therefore, even in cases where author ities have estimated market share at the initiation 
of the investigation, they should make certain their market share determination throughout the 
investigation by taking into consideration any revi sed or additional data provided or obtained in the 
course of the proceeding.  Turkey is open to di scuss appropriate methodologies to estimate apparent 
consumption/market share.    Yet, Turkey considers that the use of market share threshold on its own may not be enough for the reasons explained below. In order to arrive  at a market share figure under the proposed second 
methodology, the authority is to find out appa rent domestic consumption. One way to estimate 
apparent domestic consumption is  to sum up total domestic sales and total imports. It should be 
emphasized that determination of apparent domestic consumption at the initiation of the investigation 
might not be convenient or might not yield reliable and accurate results due to lack of necessary data. 
Hence, performing this estimation would become ea sier when all the questionnaires are filled out and 
returned back to the authority since only then accurate information on the domestic industry would be 
obtained.    Thus, besides incorporating an additional and ve ry useful threshold based on market share of 
dumped imports for the determination of negligibilit y, Turkey proposes that the existing negligibility 
criterion based on the share of dumped imports in to tal imports into the importing country is also 
maintained.  Turkey believes that  the share of dumped imports in total imports is an objective 
criterion and it can also be calculated easily except for certain situations.   
                                                     
 
1 In this paper, Turkey also intends to open to di scussion in this Group the level of the percentage 
threshold for negligible imports. 
2 Turkey is open to discuss in the Group the approp riate level of market share below which the dumped 
imports shall be considered as negligible.  TN/RL/GEN/33 
 Page 3 
 
 
  Turkey recognizes possible problems with the current methodology of determining 
negligibility.  One such problem might be experien ced when the product subject to investigation does 
not entirely cover the product types classified unde r the tariff heading used to describe the product 
under consideration.  This may cause a problem especi ally when the import sta tistics are kept on the 
basis of tariff classifications, which is usually the case.  However, in most cases, the current 
negligibility threshold has the potential to serve as an objective, practical and transparent tool to 
prevent the initiation of unnecessary investigations.  This is valid particularly when authorities have 
difficulty in determining apparent  domestic consumption at the initiation stage.  Therefore, it would 
be useful for the investigating authority to have at hand both the current and the proposed negligibility 
criteria. 
 In a nutshell, Turkey proposes to maintain the currently existing negligibility criterion, 
namely, the share of dumped imports in total im ports, while incorporating an additional methodology 
in determining negligibility, which is the share of dumped imports in appare nt domestic consumption 
in the importing Member. 
Proposal-2  
 Amend Article 5.8 so as to increase the current 3 per cent threshold for negligible volume of 
imports to (X) per cent. 
Explanation 
 There is also merit in increasing the level of  negligible volume of imports above the current 
3 per cent rate.  Such amendment would guarant ee the exclusion from the scope of anti-dumping 
investigations of import sources that are too small to cause injury to the domestic industry. 
Proposal-3  
 Delete the cumulation clause in Article 5.8, which defines an exceptional circumstance under 
which authorities are allowed to initiate or contin ue the investigation in cases where the volume of 
dumped imports individually account for less th an the current negligibility threshold.  
Explanation 
 Under Article 5.8, imports, which individually account for less than 3 per cent are considered 
to be negligible and are therefore kept out of an investigation when they are examined on their own, 
whereas these imports from a particular country  are not considered as negligible when they 
cumulatively account for more than 7 per cent of tota l imports.  This cumulation clause in Article 5.8 
might encourage industries to include as many small import sources as necessary to satisfy the 
7 per cent requirement to have an anti-dumpi ng investigation initiate d and continued.  
 As regards the impact of dumped imports on the domestic industry, it is questionable whether 
imports with a share in total less than 3 per cent may cause injury to the domestic industry of the 
importing Member.  Article 3.3 stipulates the conditions under which an authority may cumulatively assess injury to the domestic industry.  According to the provisions of this Article, authorities are not 
allowed to cumulatively assess possible adverse impacts of those imports, which individually account 
for less than 3 per cent of total imports but collec tively account for more than 7 per cent.  Thus, in 
such cases, authorities should carry out an indivi dual injury assessment for dumped imports, which 
only satisfy the cumulation clause in Article 5.8.  However, Turkey believes that such assessment 
does not seem fairly practicable, especially considering the non-attribution requirement under 
Article 3.5.  For the reasons explained above, Turkey proposes that the cumulation clause in Article 5.8 be deleted. 
 
__________