A comparative study on Canadian and EC anti-dumping legislation and the compatibility of anti-dumping law with free trade areas

Abstract

This paper looks at how anti-dumping legislation was implemented in Canada and in the European Communities. This comparison of Canadian and EC anti-dumping law aims at examining how the Anti-Dumping Code was transposed and applied in each jurisdiction by looking at each step of an anti-dumping investigation, starting with the initiation of an investigation, the calculation of the normal value and of the export price, the determination of the dumping margin, the finding of injury, and ending with other related matters such as anti-absorption and anti-circumvention rules. Having looked at Canadian and EC anti-dumping law as such, this paper examines the compatibility of anti-dumping actions with the creation of free trade areas and the effect of anti-dumping duties on such free trade areas. It looks specifically at the EC and the NAFTA examples. Both the NAFTA and the EC treaty create, generally speaking, a free trade area, however the approach taken vis-a-vis anti-dumping duties within the free trade area is different in each case: while the EC abolished anti-dumping duties within the free trade area, these duties are maintained under the NAFTA regime.