World Trade Organization

• Author: International Law Group

A WTO Dispute Settlement Panel has issued a report in the dispute "United States - Anti-dumping measures on stainless steel plate in coils and stainless steel sheet and strip from Korea." Korea had brought the complaint on July 30, 1999, arguing that several determinations of the U.S. Department of Commerce and the resulting anti-dumping duty orders of 16.26 percent on Korean steel plates and steel sheets were inconsistent with WTO trading rules (N.B. the Anti-Dumping Duty Order was published in 64 Federal Register 27756).

The Panel sided mostly with Korea. It held, in particular that: (1) as for "local sales," the U.S. acted had inconsistently with Article 2.4.1 of the Anti-Dumping Agreement in the steel sheet investigation by performing a currency conversion that was not required; (2) with respect to the "treatment of unpaid sales," the U.S. acted inconsistently with the introduction to Article 2.4 of the Anti-Dumping Agreement by making allowances for sales through unaffiliated importers which were not permissible allowances for differences affecting price comparability; and...