Australia: Growers want easier anti-dumping system, financial support for victims

04/12/2014 12:00 - 490 Views

THE burden on suppliers and producers trying to bring anti-dumping action against foreign imports must be lightened, vegetable growers say.

An inquiry into Australia’s anti-dumping measures has been told the current system is “unworkable” and that the time and resources suppliers were required to allocate, on top of running their businesses, were a major obstacle to lodging claims.

AusVeg, the group that represents 9000 vegetable and potato growers, has called for the anti-dumping legislation to be streamlined and the amount of data required to file a claim to be reduced.

House of Representatives Agriculture and Industry Committee chairman, Liberal MP Rowan Ramsey, announced an inquiry earlier this year amid claims there were too many loopholes.

He said as soon as an anti-dumping decision was granted against an imported product, producers were finding ways of changing the description, altering the product or routing the product through a third country to avoid the anti-dumping action.

SPC Ardmona successfully brought action against importers of Italian canned tomatoes last year for dumping, but it was believed to have come at a huge financial cost.

Mr Ramsey said Australia should not be prepared to accept competition from heavily ehavior d overseas manufacturers who were dumping their products below the cost of production.

AusVeg’s submission to the inquiry also called for the Anti-Dumping Commission to be given powers that provided more flexibility and expanded reach to deal quicker with dumping and circumvention ehavior. It said the commission needed an expanded ability to address ehavior within a time frame that allowed for the effective correction of damaging ehavior instead of being “a post-event Band-Aid”.

“While the current 155-day maximum for concluding an investigation is valuable, the ability of exporters to modify their products and strategies to circumvent dumping duties means that damage can still continue,” AusVeg said.

It also wants revenue paid from dumping duties to be put towards support measures for the local industry, such as fin¬ancial relief or investment in research and development.

Source: weeklytimesnow.com