. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/RL/GEN/140 
6 June 2006 
 
 (06-2674) 
Negotiating Group on Rules Original:   English 
  
 
CAUSATION 
 
Communication from Egypt
 
  
 The following communication, dated 1 June 2006, is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of Egypt. 
 
_______________ 
 
 
 Egypt has benefited from the discussions on the proposal (TN/RL/GEN/128) by the United States that were held at the last meeting of th e Negotiating Group on Rules.  Egypt shares the view 
that Article 3.5 of the Anti-Dumping Agreement should be clarified and has, thus, built on the 
proposal made by the United States.   
 Egypt considers that the assessment of causation may, in many cases, be a cumbersome and 
time-consuming exercise, given the fact that injury is often caused by various cumulative factors, one 
of them being injurious dumping.  In cases where several factors are causing injury to a domestic 
industry, the obligations imposed on interested pa rties and investigating authorities by the present 
rules are not entirely clear.  In particular, Article 3.5 does not clearly determine the scope of the 
assessment that must be carried out to determine wh ether or not injury is the consequence of dumped 
imports.  As a result, Egypt is concerned that the present rules may be interpreted in a way that would 
require the isolation and distinct analysis of all the factors that have allegedly caused injury to a 
domestic industry.  Such an interpretation w ould obviously result in a discrimination against 
investigating authorities of developing country  Members and new users of the anti-dumping 
instrument as these lack the expertise and resources to carry out such extensive assessments.  Egypt 
therefore submits that developing country Member s and new users of the anti-dumping instrument 
have a vital interest that the present rules be clarif ied insofar as it should be explicitly stated that there 
is no requirement for investigating authorities to assess th e detailed impact of different injury factors.   
  Egypt has closely analysed the prev ious submissions made on Article 3.5
1 and agrees that it is 
necessary to clarify its existing wording. In vi ew of Egypt’s above-described concerns, Egypt 
considers that the central objective of the clarifi cation of Article 3.5 should be the insertion of an 
explicit reference to the scope of the non-attributio n assessment.  Egypt believes that the amendments 
that are proposed, which are to a significant extent  based on the most recent proposal by the United 
States, would eliminate any ambiguities about the scope of the determination of injury factors and 
would, for the above-mentioned reasons, clearly be  in the interest of developing countries. 
  
Proposed amendments to Article 3.5 
 
 In light of the above, it is proposed to modify Article 3.5 as follows:  
                                                     
 
 1 See documents TN/RL/W/6-66-98-188 and TN/RL/GEN/28-38-42-59-60-128. TN/RL/GEN/140 
Page 2  
 
  “It must be demonstrated that the dumped imports are, through the effects of dumping, as set forth in 
paragraphs 2 and 4, causing injury within the mean ing of this Agreement.  The demonstration of a 
causal relationship between the dumpe d imports and the injury to the domestic industry shall be based 
on an examination of all relevant evidence before the authorities.  The authorities shall also examine 
any known factors other than the dumped imports wh ich at the same time are injuring the domestic 
industry, and the injuries caused by these other factor s must not be attributed to the dumped imports.  
Factors which may be relevant in this respect include, inter alia , the volume and prices of imports not 
sold at dumping prices, contraction in demand or  changes in the patterns of consumption, trade 
restrictive practices of and competition between the foreign and domestic produ cers, developments in 
technology and the export performance and productivity  of the domestic industry.  It is understood 
that the effects of either the dumped imports or the other known factors shall not be isolated or 
quantified, either individually or collectively.  Al so, it shall not be determined whether the effects of 
the dumped imports are more important than the eff ects of the other known factors, either individually 
or collectively. ”