As delivered
1. SURVEILLANCE OF IMPLEMENTATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS ADOPTED BY THE DSB
A. UNITED STATES – SECTION 211 OMNIBUS APPROPRIATIONS ACT OF 1998: STATUS REPORT BY THE UNITED STATES
(WT/DS176/11/ADD.105)
• The United States provided a status report in this dispute on August 22, 2011, in accordance with Article 21.6 of the DSU.
• Legislative proposals have been introduced in the current 112th Congress that would implement the recommendations and rulings of the DSB.
• The U.S. Administration will continue to work on solutions to implement the DSB’s recommendations and rulings.
1. SURVEILLANCE OF IMPLEMENTATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS ADOPTED BY THE DSB
B. UNITED STATES – ANTI-DUMPING MEASURES ON CERTAIN HOT-ROLLED STEEL PRODUCTS FROM JAPAN: STATUS REPORT BY THE UNITED STATES
(WT/DS184/15/ADD.105)
• The United States provided a status report in this dispute on August 22, 2011, in accordance with Article 21.6 of the DSU.
• As of November 2002, the U.S. authorities had addressed the DSB’s recommendations and rulings with respect to the calculation of antidumping margins in the hot-rolled steel antidumping duty investigation at issue in this dispute.
• With respect to the recommendations and rulings of the DSB that were not already addressed by the U.S. authorities, the U.S. Administration will work with the U.S. Congress with respect to appropriate statutory measures that would resolve this matter.
1. SURVEILLANCE OF IMPLEMENTATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS ADOPTED BY THE DSB
C. UNITED STATES – SECTION 110(5) OF THE US COPYRIGHT ACT: STATUS REPORT BY THE UNITED STATES
(WT/DS160/24/ADD.80)
• The United States provided a status report in this dispute on August 22, 2011, in accordance with Article 21.6 of the DSU.
• The U.S. Administration will continue to confer with the European Union, and to work closely with the U.S. Congress, in order to reach a mutually satisfactory resolution of this matter.
1. SURVEILLANCE OF IMPLEMENTATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS ADOPTED BY THE DSB
D. EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES – MEASURES AFFECTING THE APPROVAL AND MARKETING OF BIOTECH PRODUCTS: STATUS REPORT BY THE EUROPEAN UNION
(WT/DS291/37/ADD.43)
• The United States thanks the EU for its status report and its statement today.
• As noted in prior meetings, the United States is concerned with delays in the EU approval system for biotech products. Some product applications are subject to long delays even after receiving favorable assessments from the EU’s own scientific authority.
• Unfortunately, these delays continue to constrain access to the EU for biotech products.
• In the first eight months of 2011, the EU has reached a final decision on only two of the dozens of pending applications.
• The United States hopes that the EU will allow additional product applications to reach a final decision in the remaining months of 2011.
1. SURVEILLANCE OF IMPLEMENTATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS ADOPTED BY THE DSB
E. UNITED STATES – MEASURES RELATING TO ZEROING AND SUNSET REVIEWS: STATUS REPORT BY THE UNITED STATES
(WT/DS322/36/ADD.23)
• The United States provided a status report in this dispute on August 22, 2011, in accordance with Article 21.6 of the DSU.
• As the United States explained in its status report, in December 2010 the U.S. Department of Commerce announced a proposal to change the calculation of weighted average dumping margins and assessment rates in certain antidumping proceedings. At this time, the U.S. Department of Commerce is continuing with its ongoing work on the December proposal.
1. SURVEILLANCE OF IMPLEMENTATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS ADOPTED BY THE DSB
F. UNITED STATES – CONTINUED EXISTENCE AND APPLICATION OF ZEROING METHODOLOGY: STATUS REPORT BY THE UNITED STATES
(WT/DS350/18/ADD.20)
• The United States has addressed the issue of compliance with the findings in this dispute in the status report provided on August 22, 2011, and earlier in today’s discussion of agenda item 1.E. We refer Members to that report and statement for further details.
1. SURVEILLANCE OF IMPLEMENTATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS ADOPTED BY THE DSB
G. UNITED STATES – LAWS, REGULATIONS AND METHODOLOGY FOR CALCULATING DUMPING MARGINS (“ZEROING”): STATUS REPORT BY THE UNITED STATES
(WT/DS294/38/ADD.14)
• The United States has addressed the issue of compliance with the findings in this dispute in the status report provided on August 22, 2011, and earlier in today’s discussion of agenda item 1.E. We refer Members to that report and statement for further details.
1. SURVEILLANCE OF IMPLEMENTATION OF RECOMMENDATIONS ADOPTED BY THE DSB
H. CHINA – MEASURES AFFECTING TRADING RIGHTS AND DISTRIBUTION SERVICES FOR CERTAIN PUBLICATIONS AND AUDIOVISUAL ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTS: STATUS REPORT BY CHINA (WT/DS363/17/ADD.7)
• The United States thanks China for its status report and its statement today.
• As the United States has previously noted, the United States remains concerned by the lack of progress by China in bringing its measures relating to films for theatrical release into compliance with the DSB recommendations and rulings.
• The United States also has significant concerns about the incomplete progress relative to China’s measures relating to audio visual home entertainment products, reading materials, and sound recordings.
• The United States is conferring with China on these matters. The United States hopes that China will take steps to resolve this matter soon.
3. UNITED STATES – CONTINUED DUMPING AND SUBSIDY OFFSET ACT OF
2000: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS ADOPTED BY THE DSB
A. STATEMENTS BY THE EUROPEAN UNION AND JAPAN
• As the United States has explained at previous DSB meetings, the President signed the Deficit Reduction Act into law on February 8, 2006. That Act includes a provision repealing the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000. Thus, the United States has taken all actions necessary to implement the DSB’s recommendations and rulings in these disputes.
• We recall, furthermore, that Members have acknowledged during previous DSB meetings that the 2006 Deficit Reduction Act does not permit the distribution of duties collected on goods entered after October 1, 2007.
• With respect to comments regarding further status reports in this matter, as we have already explained at pervious DSB meetings, the United States fails to see what purpose would be served by further submission of status reports repeating the progress the United States made in the implementation of the DSB’s recommendations and rulings.
• Finally, we note that the EU and Japan have referred this morning to their renewed measures relating to this dispute. The United States will be reviewing carefully these measures. As we have observed previously, the DSB only authorized the suspension of concessions or other obligations as provided in the Awards of the Arbitrators.
1 Panel Report, para. 7.93.
2 Panel Report, para. 7.141.
3 See Panel Report, paras. 7.90, 7.131, and 7.132.
5. UNITED STATES – ANTI-DUMPING MEASURES ON CERTAIN SHRIMP FROM VIET NAM
A. REPORT OF THE PANEL (WT/DS404/R)
• The United States would like to begin by thanking the members of the Panel and the Secretariat assisting them for their work on this dispute.
• The United States appreciates the Panel’s thorough review of the facts and the legal claims in this dispute. In particular, the United States welcomes the Panel’s finding that Vietnam failed to identify any so-called “continued use” claim in its panel request and, accordingly, no such claim was within the Panel’s terms of reference. It is essential for panels to make findings only with respect to claims that are properly part of the matter referred to them by the DSB.
• The United States also appreciates the Panel’s recognition that Members’ investigating authorities have the right to limit the number of exporters and producers individually examined when the number of exporters or producers is so large that investigating each individually would be impracticable. The flexibility to limit the examination is critical in light of the resource constraints that all Members face.
• With respect to the “zeroing” claims at issue in this dispute, the United States notes that in one context the Panel simply adopted the reasoning of the Appellate Body in some prior disputes,1 and in another context relied on different reasoning that was also problematic.2 Although the Panel quoted the text of the relevant Agreement provisions,3 the Panel did not undertake any assessment of the ordinary meaning of that text, in its context, and in light of the object and purpose of the Anti-Dumping Agreement, as provided for in the DSU. The United States has made very clear its significant concerns with the Appellate Body’s evaluation of “zeroing” in past disputes.
We will not repeat our concerns here today. We believe that those reports, as well as the current panel report, go beyond what the text of the agreements provides and what negotiators agreed to in the Uruguay Round.
• Notwithstanding our systemic concerns about the findings in this report and earlier Appellate Body reports involving the use of “zeroing”, the United States recognizes the systemic importance of compliance with dispute settlement findings. To that end, we have devoted significant resources to complying with the recommendations and rulings in 11 these disputes. As we have previously explained to the DSB, the U.S. Department of
Commerce has announced a proposal to change the calculation of weighted average dumping margins and assessment rates in certain antidumping proceedings.
• With respect to other issues, while the Panel’s findings that some U.S. measures were not consistent with certain obligations in the Anti-Dumping Agreement are disappointing, in general the United States appreciates the Panel’s careful overall examination of the arguments presented by the parties and third parties to this dispute.
• Thank you, Madame Chair, and thanks to my fellow delegates for your attention to our statement.