Dissertation On Normal Value In Antidumping Laws

Normal value is a very important concept in antidumping law. It is a reference price artificially set by the antidumping authority in the antidumping practice, which is stipulated in WTO Agreement on Antidumping (AD Agreement) and the antidumping laws of various countries. However, WTO Agreement on Antidumping and the antidumping laws of various countries about the normal value mostly relate only to its specific determination method and the related definition by law can dispersedly be seen in the stipulation about the determination method. There has been no special description about the normal value definition by law in the above documents and the works of legal experts. In addition, the stipulations on the normal value in the related laws of various countries do not fully conform to that in WTO AD Agreement, and there is also difference between countries in the related stipulation. The difference in the determination method for normal value can directly affect or even decide on whether an imported product has resulted in dumping and the magnitude of this dumping. Therefore, a systematic and deep-going study on normal value is no doubt of important theoretical value and practical value. Based on the stipulations existing in WTO AD Agreement and in the antidumping laws of various countries, the paper concentrates on the discussion on the legal theory issues about normal value in altogether three chapters.Chapter One discusses the meaning of normal value. It concentrates on the definitions (including the definitions in law and jurisprudence senses), price patterns and characteristics of normal value. Firstly, it discusses the law definition and jurisprudence definition of normal value. It is pointed out that from the jurisprudence viewpoint of the due abstractness and generality (i.e. connotation), the normal value can be defined as a reference price stipulated by WTO and the antidumping laws of various countries that is to be used to determine whether the product has formed dumping and the dumping magnitude thereof through its comparison with the export price of the imported product. Such reference price should be the one formed in the normal trading process or under the normal trading conditions. Secondly, the dissertation discusses the price patterns of normal value, mainly involving the basic price patterns prescribed in WTO AD Agreement and those patterns commonly used by major developed countries, that is, the price of exporting country, the price of the third country and the structural price, as well as other price patterns dispersedly seen in antidumping laws of some countries, such as the market price of the importing countries in EU, the minister price of Canada and Australia, etc. Finally, this Chapter makes a tentative exploration on the law characteristics of normal value, pointing out that from the perspective of jurisprudence definition, normal value possesses at least five law characteristics.Chapter Two focuses on the rules for determining the normal value. The dissertation classifies the rules into normal and non-normal states. Among them, the normal rules refer to the general rules for normal value determined by WTO AD Agreement, and the rules determining normal value stipulated in the antidumping laws of various countries, followed or mostly followed WTO AD Agreement, which include the definition of the "products of the same kind", determination of normal trade process, determination of price pattern and determination of comparable prices. The non-normal rules for determining the normal value are, on the other hand, reflected in the discriminative rules for determining the normal value set forth in the antidumping laws of some developed capitalism countries and also executed there , which point at the products imported from so-called "non-market economy states". They mainly include the classification between "market economy state" and "non-market economy state", the determination of "surrogate country" and "analogical country".Chapter Three presents suggestions on the issue of normal value from the aspects of practice and legislation of antidumping. The author points out that Chinese enterprises, besides establishing the awareness of active response and petition and taking positive action, in the response to the normal-value-related investigation of antidumping, should concentrate on the acquirement of "market economy status" treatment, and should place the focus of the response and petition on the issues of "products of the same kind" and "normal trade process"; furthermore, the standby mechanisms of normal value investigation, concerning the response to the foreign antidumping, should be established and perfected. In the respect of related legislation, the author points out that there are insufficiencies in determining normal value in antidumping laws of our country, and it shall perfect the antidumping laws of our country concerning normal value determination from five aspects.