. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/RL/W/219 
22 February 2008 
 (08-0805) 
Negotiating Group on Rules Original:   English 
   
THE STATEMENT OF HONG KONG, CHINA ON NEGLIGIBLE IMPORTS   
AND DE MINIMIS MARGINS FOR THE INFORMAL OPEN-ENDED MEETING  
OF THE NEGOTIATING GROUP ON RULES ON 15 FEBRUARY 2008 
 
Communication from Hong Kong, China
 
 
  The following communication, dated 21 February 2008, is being circulated at the request of 
the Delegation of Hong Kong, China.    
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  We welcome the opportunities today to address the issues not covered in the draft Anti-
dumping (AD) text of the Chair.  As mentioned in  Hong Kong, China's statement at the meeting in 
December last year, we are very concerned that certa in issues, which have been raised and discussed 
intensively in the proposal stage of the negotiations , have not been addressed in the Chair text.  In 
particular, we highlighted at the time negligible imports and de minimis dumping margins;  and today 
Hong Kong, China would like to speak on the two issues and elaborate.   
 
 To big exporters and producers which take a significant share of the market and which set prices, these thresholds are not a matter of concer n.  But for small exporters like Hong Kong, China, 
these thresholds matter and indeed make a huge di fference - the difference between whether small 
exporters are allowed to continue to compete in  or driven out of the market concerned.   
  No matter how much Members clarify and improve the due process and the procedural safeguards of AD investigations, the plain, and pa inful, fact remains that for small exporters, 
AD investigation is always a catch 22 situation - most  often it is whether to spend a million dollars to 
engage foreign lawyers to defend their few million dollars worth expor t market!  And this is not an 
academic question for Hong Kong, China, for almo st all the AD investigations Hong Kong, China 
was subject to in the past few years, the same diffi cult situation recurred and troubled our exporters.   
 
 Letting go small exporters will not compromise the effectiveness of AD  measures.  On the 
contrary, investigations can become more focused, and more focused on the imports that have a real 
and substantial impact, but not immaterial or  marginal effect, on the domestic market.   
 
 We have suggested an improvement for neg ligible imports that the denominator of the 
triggering threshold should be changed to " total domestic consumpti on of the like product and the 
product under investigation in the importing county ".  This consumption share or market share, in our 
view, is a far more reasonable and representative basi s for determination of negligibility;  since import 
share, the present indicator, fails to take into account  domestic production, and he nce tells only part of 
the whole story of the market.  Detailed drafting proposal has been set out in the joint submission of Hong Kong, China and other Members in TN/RL/GEN/31/Rev.1.   
 TN/RL/W/219 
Page 2  
 
  If for any reason a change in the denominator is  not possible, Hong Kong, China is prepared 
to consider an increase in the existing percen tage threshold with comparable effect.   
  By the same token, the denominator of the cumulation threshold in Article 5.8 should be 
changed in tandem.   
  Separately, we support also the earlier propo sal of Chinese Taipei in TN/RL/GEN/68 (and 
further explained in TN/RL/W/199) that the cumula tion threshold should be cl arified and applied in 
such a way that when negligible imports of Memb ers, cumulatively, account for more than the 7 per 
cent of the market share, those of which in ascending order of their respective shares and which 
account for the first 7 per cent should continue to be exempted.  This will serve to give meaning to the 
cumulation clause in all cases, and avoid the undesirable all-or-nothing scenario as well as the unfair situation that the smallest among the small will be depr ived of the exemption that they deserve most.   
 
 For similar reasons, we would also like to see an increase in the percentage threshold for the 
de minimis margins of dumping, so that AD measu res will not be taken in those cases which are only 
justified on a thin margin of need and reason.  Bu t in the interest of time, we will not repeat what 
Hong Kong, China and other Members have said and suggested in TN/RL/GEN/30/Rev.1.   
 
 We would like to request that the above issu es be satisfactorily addressed in the negotiations 
and in any revised texts to be issued.     Thank you.    
 
 
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