Brasília – The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has ruled that certain anti-dumping practices imposed by the United States on imports of Brazilian orange juice do not comply with the rules of international trade. The final report with the ruling favourable to Brazil was announced last Friday (25th) in Geneva to all countries affiliated with the WTO.
The report is the result of an appeal filed by Brazil at the WTO in 2008, in which it denounced the illegality of the criteria adopted by the United States to define the practice of dumping on orange juice produced in Brazil.
The WTO upheld the Brazilian appeal and ruled that the calculation method applied by the United States, known as zeroing, "is incompatible" with the anti-dumping agreement. The text points out that "a methodology of comparison that ignores transactions that would have resulted in a lower margin of dumping, had they been taken into account, must be considered unfair."
Thus, the organization advised the United States to take the necessary steps to make their demands compatible with the Anti-Dumping Agreement. The panel’s ruling should be enforced by the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body within 20 to 60 days, counting from Friday. The deadline may be changed in case an appeal is filed with the multilateral organisation’s Appellate Body.
Aside from Brazil, the European Union and eight other countries (Canada, Japan, Ecuador, Thailand, Mexico, Korea, Vietnam and China) have requested panels against the United States at the WTO regarding the same matter.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
