Brazil says ends rift with US over orange juice 'dumping'

21/02/2013 12:00 - 448 Views

BRASILIA, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Brazil's government said onTuesday it had settled a trade dispute it brought to the WorldTrade Organization in 2008 against the United States over'anti-dumping' penalties the U.S. imposed on imports ofBrazilian orange juice since 2006.

Brazil, the world's top orange juice exporter, launched thelegal suit to try to overturn the punitive import duties,arguing that the U.S. method of calculating the amount that hadbeen dumped - or imported at unfairly low prices - was illegal.

A panel of WTO judges agreed and handed Brazil victory in 2011.The two sides said in February last year that they hadagreed a path towards resolving the dispute, and one month latera U.S. trade panel revoked anti-dumping duties of up to 60percent on Brazilian orange juice, dealing a blow to growers inFlorida who had pushed hard to keep them in place.

The duties on three major Brazilian orange juice processors - Cutrale Citrus Juice, Citrosuco Paulista and Louis Dreyfus - had been in place since 2006. The United States later gave up its method of calculatingdumping after losing a string of cases at the WTO.Brazil and the United States informed WTO authorities latelast week that they had formally ended their dispute, astatement from the Brazilian Foreign Affairs Ministry said onTuesday.

Dumping is a predatory trade practice through whichproducers seek to monopolize a market by selling produce at anunsustainably low level with the aim of driving competitors outof the market.

Separately on Tuesday, Brazil estimated its 2013/14industrial orange crop would produce 281 million 40.8-kg boxesof fruit, 23 percent less than last season.

Tue Feb 19, 2013 11:53am EST

Source: reuters.com