Bangladesh-India Lead Acid Battery Case: Importance of WTO’s Dispute Settlement Mechanism and Lesson for LDCs (Published)
Bangladesh-India trade dispute over India’s imposition of anti-dumping duty on Bangladesh’s lead acid battery export is a significant event in the history of World Trade Organization’s (WTO) dispute settlement mechanism. After 10 years of WTO’s establishment, this was the first instance when a least developed country (LDC) challenged a much stronger economy at the highest level of trade related international legal process. After the beginning of the legal proceedings, India’s decision to go back to negation table to find a mutually agreed solution and subsequent termination of anti-dumping duty proves that the process is important for making the big economies follow the norms and laws of international trade. In addition, the very existence of such mechanism acts as a deterrent against arbitrary enactment of unfair, unlawful and unilateral trade measures. Finally, this is a milestone for other LDCs to overcome the psychological barrier of standing up against stronger economies and claim their fair rights in international trade regime.
Keywords: Bangladesh, India, LDC, Trade Dispute, WTO, dispute settlement mechanism
Do NGOs Make a Difference? In Light of NGOs Influence in the WTO (Published)
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organizations dealing with the rules of trade between its members. According to theory and organizational norms, in principle, only sovereign states and the separate customs territories are eligible to have the full membership of the WTO and enjoy the legal rights and have obligations. In addition to the members, the WTO also allows non-state actors, particularly nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) whose international legal personality are not recognized, to participate in international trade with diverse paths in respect of WTO activities. By analyzing two cases about the Biotech Products Dispute and the AIDS Drugs in South Africa, this paper compares the participation of NGOs and Transnational Corporations (TNCs) in the WTO. It shows that in spite of the similarity of their nature—the transnational non-state actor—between NGOs and TNCs, the formal participation of the former in the WTO has far less influence than the informal participation of the latter. In other words, TNCs seems to have much more real influence over the WTO than NGOs. This research finding demonstrates that forms of participation or pure institutional participation do not guarantee non-state actors to exert their influence on the WTO. Conversely, what kind of power used by them and the relationship they established with members’ governments are the critical factors to explain whether NGOs really can make some differences in the WTO.
Keywords: Influence, NGOs, Non-State Actors, Power, TNCs, WTO
The Enforcement of the WTO Dispute Settlement Decisions According To the ECJ (Published)
Our article deals with the enforcement of WTO Dispute Settlement Decisions according to the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Bearing in mind the singular nature of the European Community ( due to its political and legal structure), it is important to study first the relationship between the WTO and the EC and then the status of WTO Decisions in the case of Dispute Settlement between one of European Community Member States and another State. To understand the legal effects of WTO Dispute Settlement Decisions on ECJ, we had to study practical Cases laws that exemplify the position of ECJ towards WTO Decisions. The analytical and practical study of this topic allowed us to come up with some criticism on the ECJ’s approach on the WTO Dispute Settlement system.
Keywords: Dispute Settlement Decisions, International law, Trade Law, WTO, direct effect., law cases, the ECJ, the GATT
Determination of Injury under the GCC Common-law on Antidumping, Countervailing Measures and Safeguard Measures and its Rules of Implementation (Published)
Anti-dumping investigations consist of two major stages. The first stage involves identification of whether the product under the investigations is being dumped. Once the investigative authority finds that the product is being dumped, it moves the second phase, injury determination. While significant experience has been gained in the first stage, the second stage came to the scrutiny relatively recently. Indeed, in earlier times the majority of anti-dumping investigations were terminated at the first stage. Only few anti-dumping complaints reached the second stage. However, with the proliferation of anti-dumping investigations in the United States and the EU, many anti-dumping complaints now reach the injury determination stage. Due to this developed many of the concepts of injury determination has been clarified. However, some of them remain vague and ambiguous. The current paper looks at these concepts and attempts to explain them.The vast majority of the existing research on anti-dumping understandably focuses on the US and the EU anti-dumping laws. Recently, scholars began paying more attention to the development of anti-dumping laws in China and India. There is also the research covering anti-dumping legislation in Australia, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil and so on. However, very little research is available on anti-dumping laws of the States belonging to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). There are few works that mention the GCC Common Law on Law on Antidumping, Countervailing Measures and Safeguard Measures and its Rules of Implementation (GCC Common Law). These works, however, do not provide any in-depth analysis of the GCC Common Law provisions. The current paper aims to address the research gap by focusing on injury determination provisions contained in the GCC Common Law.
Keywords: Anti-Dumping, Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, WTO
The Adequacy of the Common Law of the GCC to Protect the Saudi Domestic Manufacturing Industry from International Trade Dumping Practices: A Critical Evaluation of the Protection System (Published)
The Practice of dumping in the global market is clearly of concern to all trading States, whether importers or exporters. It is a form of price discrimination and unfair competition, affecting a broad range of competing interests, both national and foreign, and products in the captive market. What protects the Gulf market in general, and the Saudi market in specific, from these injurious practices are the legal provisions of the GCC ‘Common Law on Antidumping, Countervailing Measures and Safeguard Measures and its Rules of Implementation’. Since the adoption of the GCC Common Law in 2003, almost all dumping complaints did not proceed further than the investigation stage. One possible explanation that might be provided is that there might be no real dumping problems in Saudi market. However, this explanation is difficult to accept, especially because Saudi Arabia had experienced the existence of the problem even before adopting the free market system by becoming a WTO member. Therefore, the aim of this research is to identify the gap between the theory and the application. This requires an investigation of the adequacy of the Common Law so that it can provide a sufficiently protective framework to the Saudi market against the dumping problem. It also requires exploring how the law is applied.
Keywords: Dumping, Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, WTO
A Conceptual Framework: ‘Dumping’ and ‘Anti-Dumping’ in the International and Regional Legal Systems (Published)
These papers cover the discussion about the concept of dumping and anti-dumping. It provides a clear framework of these concepts and their historical foundation. The paper views the economic and the legal definition of dumping and views the Shariah laws concerning this concept. Finally, the paper shed light on the Arab countries and their utilization of anti-dumping within the framework of the WTO
Keywords: Anti-Dumping, Arab Countries, Dumping, WTO