WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/ADP/AHG/W/189 
13 September 2011 
 (11-4403) 
Committee on Anti-Dumping Practices 
Working Group on Implementation Original:   English 
 
 
 
ARTICLE 5.3 – ACCURACY AND ADEQUACY 
 
Paper by South Africa 
 
 
 The following communication, dated 9 September 2011, is being circulated at the request of the Delegation of South Africa.  
_______________ 
 
 
 Further to the agreement reached in the Working Group on Implementation to examine 
additional topics for discussion, as noted in doc ument G/ADP/W/477, South Africa is pleased to 
submit the following paper describing how its Inv estigating Authority, the International Trade 
Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC) implements the accuracy and adequacy test set 
forth in Article 5.3 of the Anti-Dumping Agreement.  
 
1. Legal Framework 
(a) Article 5.3 of the Anti-Dumping Agreement 
"The authorities shall examine the accuracy and adequacy of the evidence provided in the 
application to determine whether there is suffic ient evidence to justify the initiation of an 
investigation."   
 
(b) Section 18 of the Anti-Dumping Regulations  
“The Commission shall satisfy itself as to th e accuracy of the information supplied by 
cooperating interested parties. The Commission ma y conduct such verifications at the SACU 
producers and at cooperating importers, exporters and foreign producers as it may deem 
necessary.” 
 
(c) Section 25 of the Anti-Dumping Regulations 
“The Commission shall satisfy itself of the accuracy and adequacy of the information 
provided in the application.” 
 
2. The practice of ITAC 
 The Commission always examines the accuracy and adequacy of the information provided in 
an application to determine whether or not there is prima facie case to justify the initiation of an 
investigation. 
 G/ADP/AHG/W/189 
Page 2  
 
   As a first step, a verification is undertaken at  the Applicant’s premises prior to initiation, 
which involves the following:  
(a) Factory visit 
 A factory visit is undertaken to familiari se the Commission’s official s with the method of 
manufacturing the like product. 
 
(b) Accounting practices 
 The Applicant is requested to provide a written summary of the basic books used in 
its accounting system. 
 The investigators will review the manner in which source documents for sales and 
expenses flow into the financial statem ents via accounting vouchers, journals, 
subsidiary ledgers, and genera l ledger accounts. The Applicant is requested to provide 
a diagram showing how these documents flow into the financial statements. 
(c) Cost build-up of the SACU product 
 The cost build-up as submitted is verified. The following items are verified: 
 
 Costs of production elements for the SACU product. 
 Various cost elements should be substantia ted and precise details provided in respect 
of the cost build-up. Costs that will need to  be verified are raw material costs, labour 
costs, manufacturing overheads and packaging costs etc. 
 Administrative, selling and general costs the company incurs on its sales to the 
domestic market. 
 Profits relating to sales of the goods on the domestic market. 
(d) Injury indicators 
 The investigators analyse the information subm itted by the Applicant pertaining to the effect 
and impact of the alleged dumping on the following factors: 
  Price undercutting; price depression; price suppression; output; sales; market share; productivity; profits; utilisation of production cap acity; return on investments; cash flow; 
employment; wages; ability to raise capital; growth; inventory levels. 
 
 The above information is verified by the inves tigators prior to initiation of an investigation to 
authenticate the accuracy and validity of the information. The investigat ors also ensure that there is a 
link between various injury indicators.   
(e) Statistical  and other price information  
 The Commission’s investigators will also obt ain import statistics from the South African 
Revenue Service (SARS), as well as Bills of Entry for the proposed period of investigation for 
dumping, to verify the following information provided by the Applicant:   
- import statistics of the alleged dumped impor ts and of imports from other countries;   G/ADP/AHG/W/189 
 Page 3 
 
 
  - names of known importers; 
- the export price of the product under investigation; - import prices of the alleged dumped product; and - import prices of other imports of the subject product.  
(f) Miscellaneous issues 
(i) Negligibility 
 The Commission’s investigators will determine whether imports of the alleged dumped 
product are above the negligible level. 
 
(ii) Product  description, classification and scope 
 The description of the product under considerati on and the tariff classification of the product 
are confirmed with SARS to ensure that the scope of the investigation is correct and that SARS will 
be able to administer an anti-dumping duty, if imposed.   Based on the information available to it, a deta iled like product analysis is done, to ensure that 
the imported product and the SACU product can be re garded as like for purposes of the investigation. 
 
(iii) Standing 
 An analysis of the production volumes submitted by the Applicant is done to ensure that at 
least 25% of the SACU industr y supports the application. 
 
(iv) No prior publication 
 Pertaining to the allegation of dumping, the Commission gives due regard to the requirements 
in its regulations and the ADA, whic h provide that the receipt of an application shall not be publicised 
prior to initiation of an inves tigation. Therefore, determining the accuracy and adequacy of the 
information contained in the application is done in  so far as information is available to do so. 
 
(v) Normal value, export price and adjustments 
 As indicated above, the import statistics provid es a good indication of the export price of the 
allegedly dumped product. Applicants are require d to submit substantiation for any adjustments 
requested to the export price provided, and these are checked by investigators. 
  With regard to the normal value provided by  the Applicant, any adjustments thereto are 
verified against the substantiating information submitted by the Applicant. Where possible, the 
accuracy and adequacy of the data and information provided in support of the dumping margin calculations are also checked ag ainst published information. 
  The methodology and calculation of the dumping margin provided by the applicant are 
thoroughly checked to ensure its accuracy. 
 
(vi) Merit submission 
 After this analysis is completed, the inves tigators prepare a submission to the Commission to 
enable it to make a determ ination on whether or not prima facie  information has been submitted to 
justify the initiation of an investigation.  
__________