A tariff is a tax on imports or exports between sovereign states. It is a form of regulation of foreign trade. It is a policy that taxes foreign products to encourage or protect domestic industry. The tariff is historically used to protect infant industries and to allow import substitution industrialization.
An amicus curiae is someone who is not a party to a case and may or may not have been solicited by a party and who assists a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case; and is typically presented in the form of a brief. The decision on whether to consider an amicus brief lies within the discretion of the court. The phrase amicus curiae is legal Latin.
Dumping, in economics, is a kind of injuring pricing, especially in the context of international trade. It occurs when manufacturers export a product to another country at a price below the normal price with an injuring effect. The objective of dumping is to increase market share in a foreign market by driving out competition and thereby create a monopoly situation where the exporter will be able to unilaterally dictate price and quality of the product.
The Canada–U.S. softwood lumber dispute is one of the largest and most enduring trade disputes between both nations. This conflict arose in 1982 and its effects are still seen today. British Columbia, the major Canadian exporter of softwood lumber to the United States, was most affected, reporting losses of 9,494 direct and indirect jobs between 2004 and 2009.
An export in international trade is a good or service produced in one country that is bought by someone in another country. The seller of such goods and services is an exporter; the foreign buyer is an importer.
Trade barriers are government-induced restrictions on international trade. Most trade barriers work on the same principle: the imposition of some sort of cost on trade that raises the price or availability of the traded products. If two or more nations repeatedly use trade barriers against each other, then a trade war results. Barriers take the form of tariffs and non-tariff barriers to trade.
Non-tariff barriers to trade (NTBs) or sometimes called "Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs)" are trade barriers that restrict imports or exports of goods or services through mechanisms other than the simple imposition of tariffs. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) defines a non-tariff barrier as "any obstacle to international trade that is not an import or export duty. They may take the form of import quotas, subsidies, customs delays, technical barriers, or other systems preventing or impeding trade." According to the World Trade Organization, non-tariff barriers to trade include import licensing, rules for valuation of goods at customs, pre-shipment inspections, rules of origin, and trade prepared investment measures.
A safeguard, in international law, is a restraint on international trade or economic development to protect communities from development aggression or home industries from foreign competition.
The Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, also known as the SPS Agreement, is an international treaty of the World Trade Organization. It was negotiated during the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and entered into force with the establishment of the WTO at the beginning of 1995. Broadly, the sanitary and phytosanitary ('SPS') measures covered by the agreement are those aimed at the protection of human, animal or plant life or health from certain risks.
Jennifer Anne Hillman is a law professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, teaching courses in international economic law, including international trade, investment and international business transactions. Hillman’s career focuses on international trade and investment, financial services and the adjudication of international economic disputes. She recently served as one of seven judges from around the world on the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) highest court, its Appellate Body, where she helped adjudicate 20 disputes involving a wide variety of legal obligations, ranging from claims arising from subsidies to Airbus, Boeing and US cotton producers, to regulations over trade in agriculture products, to antidumping disputes, to claims regarding the nature and extent of China’s WTO accession commitments. Hillman also has in-depth experience adjudicating antidumping, countervailing duty, patent and safeguards cases as a result of her nine-year service as a Commissioner at the United States International Trade Commission. Through her work as the General Counsel at the Office of the United States Trade Representative, Hillman was integrally involved in all litigation matters in which the United States was a party or third party in disputes before panels of the NAFTA or the WTO. She demonstrated great success at negotiating trade agreements, having reached mutually acceptable agreements with over 45 countries while serving as USTR’s Ambassador and Chief Textiles Negotiator. Hillman also has extensive policy-making experience, having worked in the United States Senate on numerous pieces of legislation relating to banking, securities, financial services, investment, housing and international trade.
Third country dumping is a situation in which exports of a product from one country are being injured or threatened with injury because of exports of the same product from a second country into a third country at less than fair value. Section 1318 of the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 establishes procedures for U.S. industries to petition the U.S. Trade Representative to request a foreign government that is a signatory to the GATT Anti-Dumping Code to initiate an antidumping investigation on behalf of a U.S. industry that claims it is being injured by dumping in that country’s market.
Garlic production in China is significant to the worldwide garlic industry, as China provides 80% of the total world production and is the leading exporter. Following China, other significant garlic producers include India and Bangladesh (1%). As of 2016, China produced 21 million tonnes annually.
Anti-Dumping Measures on Biodiesel by the European Union. Argentina and Indonesia were the two biggest exporters of biodiesel to the European Union. Together, they were responsible for about 90% or 2.5mn tonnes of the biodiesel imports of the European Union in 2012. But by mid-2012, the European Union accused Argentina and Indonesia of dumping their biodiesel in the European Union, meaning that they were both selling their biodiesel under the price of the home market and implemented anti-dumping tariffs on biodiesel from the two countries, effectively halting flows.
In 2012, South Africa imposed anti-dumping duties on Brazilian imports of frozen poultry products. Brazil brought its case to the World Trade Organization, and South Africa chose to impose a general tariff on chicken imports, rather than anti-dumping duties against Brazilian importers.
The Catfish Dispute started in 2001, as a trade war between Vietnam and the United States' catfish producers. The main argument concerns the import volume of catfish from Vietnam which results in lower profits for U.S. catfish producers. In dealing with major losses in profit, the Catfish Farmers of America (CFA), presented a series of lawsuits to the U.S. Department of Commerce against frozen catfish from Vietnam.
In the 1990s, a trade dispute over fresh salmon arose between Canada and Australia. In 1995, Canada made a complaint to the World Trade Organization, of which both countries are members, about Australia's restriction on imports of fresh salmon, which were part of a quarantine measure for health purposes.
On August 29, 2013, an antidumping case involving South Korea began at the World Trade Organization over U.S. tariffs imposed on imported washing machines. South Korea exports around U.S.$800 million–1 billion worth of washing machines to the United States per year. The machines are made in Mexico and South Korea. South Korea was notified by the WTO for consultations with the United States on anti-dumping and countervailing measures on South Korean "residential washers" by the US Department of Commerce. The case was brought by Whirlpool Corporation, one of the world's biggest appliance makers.
The US-Mexico Trade Dispute - Stainless Steel Sheets and Coils dumping is a trade dispute between the governments of The United States and Mexico. On May 26, 2006 Mexico requested consultations with the United States about a number of final anti-dumping judgments made by the US Department of Commerce. The judgments concerned the imports of stainless steel sheets and strips from Mexico, which were supposedly illegal dumping through the use of a "Zeroing" technique by the US Department of Commerce. Mexico believed that some of the laws, regulations, administrative practices and methodologies implemented by the US impaired and nullified the benefits added to Mexico, directly or indirectly, under the WTO Agreement on Customs Valuation, and that the anti-dumping laws were unwarranted. The consultations were held to discuss activities carried on between January 1999 and June 2004. This led to a panel being established in December 2006, the proceedings of which continued until May 2013, with a mutually agreeable solution being reached. Japan asked to join the consultation in June 2006.
A “like product” describes the particular relationship in international trade law between two goods that are produced by two different trading nations. This concept is the foundation of the two central principles of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) system as outlined in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1947 (GATT): Most Favoured Nation and National Treatment. If two products cannot be differentiated under the WTO system/GATT then the non-discrimination principle stipulates that a WTO trading member shall not discriminate between like products from different trading partners and shall not discriminate between its own and like foreign products. In essence, if two products are found to be ‘like’ then the issue is whether the foreign product is treated less favourable than the domestic product or another foreign product.
