The Notion of a Non-Market Economy in the Context of Anti-Dumping Measures

One of the issues, which arouse discussions in the field of trade remedies today, is the issue of whether a normal value may be adjusted while calculating a dumping margin in the case of state intervention in the economy. For the last 10 years the importance of this problem has been growing. A number of countries presume that they have the right to reject or adjust the information submitted by exporters for the calculation of a normal value in anti-dumping investigations on the basis that the economy of the exporting country is non-market/noncompetitive/distorted. Therefore, a dumping margin as well as an antidumping duty, which exporters have to pay, are overstated. The aim of this article is to analyze the problem of application of non-market methodologies in anti-dumping investigations within historical and present background. Taking into account the changes which are happening now in the world economy as well as the crisis of the World Trade Organization due to the non-functioning Appellate Body, the use of the notion «non-market» for anti-dumping measures may not only lose its significance but, on the contrary, may become a widely used instrument in the competition between the countries.