In its June 4, 2010, edition, Afrikaans Sunday news- paper Rapport published an article on the latest High Court antidumping court case relating to pneumatic tyres classifiable under tariff subheadings 4011.10.00, 4011.20, 4011.20.15, and 4011.20.25 and imported from or originating in the People’s Republic of China.

The article read: “Four multinational manufacturers of pneumatic tyres on Friday obtained a court order against the alleged dumping of cheap tyres imported from the People’s Republic of China. In the High Court of Pretoria, Judge Willie Hartzenberg set aside the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa’s (Itac’s) recommendation for the said antidumping investigation. The Itac recommendation was first announced in [a] Government Gazette [published in] 2007.

“Hartzenberg also ordered that the Minister of Trade and Industry’s decision to accept Itac’s recommendation be set aside. He further ordered that Itac complete the antidumping investigation within four months. The companies, Bridgestone South Africa, Continental Tyre South Africa, Dunlop Tyres International and Goodyear Tyre & Rubber Holdings, together with the South African Tyre Manufacturers Conference, the representative organisation for South African tyre manufacturers, lodged the court application.

“The application was submitted by 19 respondents, besides others seven Chinese companies that manufacture tyres and export to South Africa and nine South African companies that import tyres from China. Hartzenberg said that, when a country’s economy is so influenced by the State that it is not a free-market economy, goods can likely be exported at lower prices than the normal prices in the importing country with a free-market economy. This can harm the economy of the import country. This can have all sorts of consequences, such as the stagnation of its economy and a loss of jobs.

“Accordingly, there is an international agreement that gives member states of the World Trade Organisation the power to protect their economies against the dumping of products. Hartzenberg said that South Africa is a member country bound by the antidumping agreement. The applicants claimed Chinese tyres are dumped in South Africa at prices at which local producers cannot compete. In July 2005, the applicants submitted an antidumping application to Itac, and, in May 2006, they made submissions to Itac. Part of their argument was that the sale of imported Chinese tyres increased rapidly and that sales of tyres manufactured in the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) had declined.

“In its final report, Itac said that six of the respondents did not dump their products in South Africa, but that tyres were dumped by other exporters in the Sacu region. Itac found that other factors, and not dumping, resulted in the Sacu manufacturers’ suffering. The investigation was terminated on April 5, 2007. Hartzenberg said Itac did not pay adequate attention to the investigation. He further said that Itac must surely be able to conclude the study within four months.”

World Customs Organisation

The World Customs Organisa- tion has published the WCO News edition for the second quarter of 2010. The publication contains the following articles: Getting to Grips with Risk Management – Special Dossier; Initial Results of the Custom Risk Management Survey; Risk Management: What Can You Really Manage?; WCO Puts Risk Management under the Microscope; Latest Developments – WCO Risk Management Activities; Risk Management: Key Enablers; Managing Risk in Practice: South Africa Shares Her Experience; How to Modernise Risk Analysis and the Selectivity of Customs Controls in Developing Countries?; Joint Risk Analysis on Cross-Border Traffic in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Mexico Customs Reports Success with Risk Analysis; In Conversation – Susanne Aigner and Heike Barczyk New Deputy Directors at the WCO Secretariat; Colombian Customs Administration; Protecting Cultural Heritage; Emergency Humanitarian Aid and the Haiti Disaster; Using Statistics to Fight Corruption; International Customs Day around the World; Karl Heinz Matthias, Director of the Zollkriminalamt, Retires; WCO Information Technology Conference, Dublin (Ireland); The WCO Technical Committee on Customs Valuation Celebrates 30 Years of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade/World Trade Organisation Agreement; and National and Regional Harmonized System Seminars.

Edited by: Martin Zhuwakinyu

By: Callie Lombard
2nd July 2010

Source: www.engineeringnews.co.za