United States — Countervailing and Anti-dumping Measures on Certain Products from China

Consultations

Complaint by China.

On 17 September 2012, China requested consultations with the United States concerning the following measures:

(i) a new piece of legislation (Public Law 112-99) that explicitly allows for the application of countervailing measures to non-market economy countries;

(ii) countervailing duty determinations or actions made or performed by US authorities between 20 November 2006 and 13 March 2012 in respect of Chinese products;

(iii) anti-dumping measures associated with the concerned countervailing duty measures as well as the combined effect of these anti-dumping measures and the parallel countervailing duty measures; and

(iv) the United States' failure to provide the US Department of Commerce (USDOC) with legal authority to identify and avoid the double remedies in respect of investigations or reviews initiated on or between 20 November 2006 and 13 March 2012.

China considers that these measures are inconsistent with:

• Articles 10, 15, 19, 21 and 32 of the SCM Agreement;
• Articles VI, X:1, X:2 and X:3 of the GATT 1994; and
• Articles 9 and 11 of the Anti-Dumping Agreement.

On 19 November 2012, China requested the establishment of a panel.  At its meeting on 30 November 2012, the DSB deferred the establishment of a panel.

Panel and Appellate Body proceedings

At its meeting on 17 December 2012, the DSB established a panel.  Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Turkey and Viet Nam reserved their third party rights.  Subsequently, India and the Russian Federation reserved their third party rights.  On 21 February 2013, China requested the Director-General to determine the composition of the panel.  On 4 March 2013, the Director-General composed the panel.