China’s Decision-making System Of Concurrent Anti-dumping And Countervailing Duty Measures

Anti-dumping and countervailing duty measures are permitted trade remedyinstruments that can be applied by WTO Members under the WTO legal framework. Sincethe2007global financial crisis, the global trade protectionism has been on the rise. Therehas been a proliferation of WTO members applying concurrent anti-dumping andcountervailing duty measures (concurrent measures) as normal trade remedy instruments,leading to the extension of trade friction from the micro enterprise-level to the macrogovernment-level;ith the rise of China’s global trade status concurrent measurestargeting China are surging, bringing about severe trade tensions facing China. At the sametime, in order to maintain domestic industrial security and create fair trade environment,China has growing demand to apply concurrent measures on its own, which brings newchallenges to China’s fair trade practices Therefore while actively dealing with foreignanti-dumping and countervailing duty measures, the Chinese government has to focus onhow to apply anti-dumping and countervailing duty measures on its own. Particularly in thespecific context, how the Chinese government applies concurrent measures timely andlegitimately is critical to offset the limitation of single anti-dumping or countervailing dutymeasure, in order to effectively maintain global fair trade order, promote national interestcoordination, protect domestic industrial development and balance multiple public interests.With the profound changes in global political and economic situation as well asincreasing severe trade protectionism, this thesis is based on WTO legal framework andChina’s fair trade practices applying multi-disciplinary theories and methods, such assystem science, management decision-making, public policy and econometrics, etc., andputting forward China’s decision-making system of concurrent measures. The novel aspectsof the thesis are as follows:(1) The thesis constructs large-sample database of global concurrent measures andconducts in-depth analysis on practical characteristics and key influencing factors of globalconcurrent measures. Through comprehensive collection of467concurrent anti-dumpingand countervailing duty investigations (concurrent investigations) from1982-2013, thethesis systematically analyses the practical characteristics of global concurrent measuresfrom both global and country perspectives, as well as empirically analysing the keyinfluencing factors of global concurrent investigations by applying the panel data model to explore the underlying causes why WTO Members initiate concurrent investigations.(2) The thesis constructs China’s investigating decision-making system of concurrentmeasures. Based on general investigating decision-making criteria of single anti-dumpingand countervailing duty measures as well as China’s concurrent investigation practices, thethesis puts forward specific investigating decision-making criteria and methods ofconcurrent measures. From the perspectives of management decision-making and publicpolicy, the thesis puts forward the dumping and subsidy identification methods on the basisof the “fact-finding criterion”, the industrial injury identification methods on the basis ofthe “development criterion”, and the causality identification method on the basis of the“main cause criterion”, providing theory basis and method support for Chinesegovernment’s investigating decision-making of concurrent measures.(3) The thesis constructs China’s implementing decision-making system of concurrentmeasures. From three dimensions of domestic industry development (D), social welfarebalance (S) and trade environment improvement (T), the thesis puts forward the D-S-Tportfolio decision-making criteria. Furthermore, the thesis constructs differentdecision-making schemes as well as simulating and comparing different decision-makingscenarios under different decision-making schemes. On the basis of policy priority setting,the thesis evaluates and selects the optimal decision-making scheme, providing referencefor Chinese government’s implementing decision-making of concurrent measures.(4) The thesis selects the China-US Solar-grade Polysilicon case for decision-makingsimulation. Applying the theories and methods of investigating decision-making system andimplementing decision-making system, the thesis draws investigating decision-makingconclusions and implementing decision-making conclusions in phases. On this basis, thethesis compares the simulation conclusions with the practical conclusions to verify thescientificity, validity and feasibility of decision-making theories and methods.