WTO says anti-dumping measures jump in year to June

Cargo containers are stacked up at a port area in Tokyo in this August 12, 2009 file photo.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Anti-dumping measures against unfairly priced imports jumped by more than one third in the year to June, the World Trade Organisation said on Friday.

The figures suggested that governments had become more aggressive during the financial crisis in countering imports that they believed were unfairly competing with home products.

Anti-dumping measures are often a source of trade disputes, but in principle WTO members are allowed to impose duties on goods that are dumped -- sold for less than cost -- if an investigation shows they are being sold cheaply and are hurting domestic producers.

The fact that the WTO's 153 members are using anti-dumping measures rather than other more overtly protectionist tools, and are notifying them to the WTO also suggests the global trading system is holding up under pressure from the crisis.

The 2009 report from the WTO's Committee on Anti-Dumping Practices said members had notified a total of 281 provisional and final anti-dumping measures that they had launched between July 2008 and June 2009.

In the same 2007/08 period the total was 201.

However, the actual number of anti-dumping measures is likely to be higher, as the report shows that many members had not filed notifications, especially for the first half of 2009.

Out of the notified measures, India was the most active user, with 68 provisional and final measures launched in 2008/09, up from 45 the previous year.

The United States, which under President Barack Obama has promised to enforce trade rules more vigorously, notifed 47 measures, up from 30. Brazil's notifications rose to 28 from 17, and Argentina's rose to 23 from 10.

China, now the world's biggest exporter, was again by far the biggest target of anti-dumping, which accounting for 120 in 2008/09, up from 75 in the previous year.

But China, which is often accused by its partners of being protectionist, cut the number of its notified measures to 14 from 18. Anti-dumping measures notified by the European Union fell to 20 from 26.