The Anti-circumvention Clause In The Anti-dumping Law

The anti-circumvention clause is the result of the prolongation and evolution ofthe anti-dumping. It is the inevitable product of the persistent development of theanti-dumping law. Its' emergence has profound social and economical backgrounds. The emergence of the anti-circumvention clause was linked with the"screwdriver case" at the end of 1980'. At that time, with the increasingimprovement of the anti-dumping law both in substantiality and procedure, afterbeen taken anti-dumping sanctions, some exporters, esp, in Japan and Korea,exported accessories or raw materials of the same products to the import countrieswhere they assembled or produced the same products and put them into commercialscopes again, or changed the shapes of the same products or further processed themand then exported to the original import countries once again, or exported theabove mentioned accessories to the third country where they were assembled orprocessed and exported these finished products from the third country to theoriginal import countries so as to circumvent the anti-dumping duty. In the face ofthese circumvention conducts, EU and USA constituted special provisions oncircumvention conducts in the anti-dumping law, that was anti-circumventionclause. Later, anti-circumvention was brought to negotiation agenda in the UruguayRound of GATT and a new Anti-dumping Code (protocol, also named the DunkelText) was brought forward. But the anti-circumvention clause in this text wasmarkedly distinguished from that of USA and could not meet USA's needs ofprotecting domestic industry, so the anti-circumvention clause was obliterated fromthe Dunkel Text. Up to now, the anti-circumvention legislation is mainly embodiedas the anti-circumvention clause in each country's anti-dumping law. There isn't anunified anti-circumvention regulation on the international level. That is because thejustness of the anti-circumvention clause is still under dispute. The anti-circumvention clause has its' validity and rationality. From the pointof view of the legal-economics, it is not in conflict with the conception of justice,efficiency and order. It can be foreseen that the anti-circumvention clause will bebrought into the framework of WTO anti-dumping law in the near future. The anti-circumvention legislation in China is relatively laggard and can'tadapt to realistic needs. Abiding by the principle of taking advantages of EU andUSA's successful practices and at the same time taking our country's reality intoaccounts, we should improve the anti-circumvention clause in our anti-dumping lawboth in substantiality and procedure.