Minister for Home Affairs Jason Clare today welcomed the passing of the third tranche of the Government’s anti-dumping legislation through the House of Representatives.

“This legislation directly addresses the concerns of business, workers and unions,” Mr Clare said.

“It implements reforms we announced last year that will make our anti-dumping system clearer and fairer, while ensuring that it complies with our international obligations.”

The bill will proceed to the Senate for consideration.

The legislation makes four substantive reforms to the anti-dumping system. It:

• Gives the CEO of Customs and Border Protection or the Minister the power to act on the basis of ‘all facts available’ in determining whether a countervail able subsidy has been received, or the amount of a countervailing subsidy, if adequate information has not been provided to Customs by the country of origin or the company being investigated;

• Removes a limitation to the inclusion of profit when constructing a ‘normal value’ of a good;

• Removes the need for a separate review of anti-dumping measures and a continuation inquiry when they occur in close proximity to one another; and

• Allows the Minister to utilize additional forms of interim dumping duty beyond the single form that is currently provided for.

“We are making these reforms to improve access to the anti-dumping system for businesses, provide faster resolution of anti-dumping investigations and ensure greater consistency with anti-dumping administrations in other countries,” Mr. Clare said.

“These reforms also continue to ensure that Australia’s anti-dumping system complies with our international trade obligations.”

The fourth and final tranche of legislation to implement the anti-dumping reforms announced last year is scheduled to be introduced in the next Parliamentary sittings.