EU applies to WTO regarding US AD duties

The European Union (EU) has again applied to the World Trade Organization (WTO) regarding its dispute with the US over the calculation of antidumping duties. The focus of the EU application is the controversial “zeroing” method for calculating antidumping duties that allows US officials to ignore certain price data, thus resulting in larger duties. US trade officials stated that they were reviewing the EU request, adding that the US Department of Commerce (DOC) has announced plans to curtail the use of zeroing in antidumping investigations. The WTO first condemned the US use of zeroing in 2004. As previously reported by SteelOrbis, in April 2006 the WTO's Appellate Body again ruled that some methods used by the US to determine whether imported goods are being dumped violate global trade rules. “However, these previous rulings left open a number of issues which are now covered by the new request for consultations”, EU officials stated.