Lead:

The so-called commodity dumping refers to the fact that, in the normal course of trade, a product is exported from one country to another, at a price lower than the domestic market, or even lower than the cost of production of the commodity, dumped in a foreign market, and a competitor is attacked to occupy the market, that is, the product enters the commercial channel of another country at a price lower than its normal price, then the product will be considered dumping.

In June 2004, the European Commission recently published a notice in its official publication, announcing that it had launched an anti-dumping investigation on some polyester long-staple garment fabrics imported from China. China's Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Textiles said that it is estimated that more than 1,000 mainland textile manufacturers are involved in the anti-dumping investigation, involving a total amount of US$580 million.

The European Commission informed that an agency called AIUFFASS (European Textile and Apparel Organization) had filed a complaint calling for anti-dumping proceedings, and that most of the polyester garment fabrics produced in the EU were made by producers organized by the union. AIUFFASS said that polyester clothing fabrics originating from China were dumped in the EU, causing substantial damage to EU operators. AIUFFASS pointed out that the increasing volume and market share of these products imported into the EU have adversely affected the market share, sales volume and product prices of EU domestic players.

So what exactly is commodity dumping?

The so-called "commodity dumping" means that in the normal course of trade, a product is exported from one country to another, and at a price lower than the domestic market, or even lower than the cost of production of the commodity, dumped in the foreign market, and the competitor is attacked in order to occupy the market, that is, the product enters the commercial channel of another country at a price lower than its normal price, then the product will be considered dumping.

According to the specific purpose of dumping, commodity dumping can be divided into three forms: incidental dumping, intermittent dumping and continuous dumping. Incidental dumping usually refers to the sale of goods in foreign markets at a lower price because the peak sales season in the domestic market has passed, or the company has switched to other overstocked stocks that are difficult to sell in the domestic market.

Since such dumping is of short duration and small in quantity, it does not have a particularly adverse impact on similar industries in the importing country, but consumers in the importing country instead benefit from the acquisition of cheap goods, so the importing country generally does not take anti-dumping measures against such incidental dumping.

Intermittent dumping refers to selling in foreign markets at a price lower than the domestic price or below the cost to achieve the purpose of striking at competitors and forming a monopoly. After defeating all or most of its competitors, it uses monopoly power to raise prices in order to obtain high monopoly profits. This kind of dumping violates the principle of fair competition and undermines the international economic and trade order, so it is restricted by the anti-dumping laws of various countries. Persistent dumping refers to the indefinite and continuous sale of goods in foreign markets at prices lower than those of the domestic market, which is the most harmful and will attract strong opposition from importing countries.

Dumping is an artificially low-price sales measure, and its motives and purposes are varied, some are to sell surplus products, and some are to compete for foreign markets and expand exports. However, dumping is an act of unfair competition, which often causes damage to the economic interests of the importing country, especially the continuous dumping disrupts the market economic order of the importing party and will bring a devastating blow to the importing party's economy.

If there is dumping that affects fair trade, there will naturally be corresponding anti-dumping. The so-called anti-dumping of foreign goods in the domestic market is a countermeasure taken against it. Generally speaking, in addition to the general import duty, a surcharge is imposed on the dumped foreign goods so that they cannot be sold cheaply, and such additional duties are called "anti-dumping duties". For example, the United States ** stipulates that when the CIF price of a foreign commodity is lower than the ex-factory price, it is considered to be dumping the goods, and anti-dumping measures shall be taken immediately. Although the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) clearly stipulates the issue of anti-dumping, in practice, countries still regard anti-dumping as one of the main means of trade war. The WTO's Anti-Dumping Agreement stipulates that in order for a member to implement anti-dumping measures, it must comply with three conditions: first, establish the fact of dumping; second, to identify the threat of material injury or material injury to the domestic industry, or to the establishment of the relevant domestic industry; Third, it is established that there is a causal link between dumping and injury. According to the definition of dumping, dumping is considered to exist if the export price of a product is lower than the normal price. The difference between the export price and the normal price is known as the dumping margin.

The adoption of anti-dumping measures in order to curb dumping should be reasonable, but if the implementation of anti-dumping measures exceeds its reasonable scope or extent, anti-dumping measures can also become a protectionist measure, thus having a hindering impact on the expansion of international trade. For example, arbitrarily determining that goods that are not dumped in the first place are dumped goods, or unjustifiably exaggerating the dumping margin, thereby imposing unreasonable anti-dumping measures or unduly increasing the amount of anti-dumping duties imposed, will impede the normal conduct of import trade.

In recent years, China has frequently suffered from foreign anti-dumping. The latest report released by the WTO in December 2010 pointed out that in the first half of 2010, there was a decrease in anti-dumping investigations around the world, but China became the biggest victim of global anti-dumping investigations. In the first half of 2010 alone, there were 23 new investigations on Chinese exports, a three-tenth decrease from the same period last year (30), but still more than double the European Union's 11 targets, the second largest target.

Correspondingly, China is also the hardest hit area by the new anti-dumping measures. In the first half of 2010, nearly half (25) of the 59 new anti-dumping measures imposed by WTO members were aimed at China's exports. And this figure is much higher than that of the European Union, the United States, etc., which are next in line.

Who the Chinese are messing with, and why do people always accuse China of dumping? Reading the following self-report of a Chinese student in the United States, it may give people a little inspiration:

Around 2006, I bought a pair of Adidas tracksuits for $99.99 at the time. Just a few days ago, when I went to Walmart for Christmas shopping, I found that Walmart was selling a sportswear made in the mainland, the quality is still very good, it is pure cotton, and the surprising price is only $3.99, and there is a 7% discount for buying two. In other words, it costs only $5.586 to buy two mainland-made sportswear, which means that it only costs nearly 20 yuan including shipping and customs duties.

I was very surprised and shocked by this, so I called a friend in China, and I asked him, "Can you buy a good quality sportswear for about 20 yuan in the mainland?" This friend said to me: "What era is it, how can there be about 20 yuan of sportswear in the mainland?" You also have to buy good quality sportswear, more than 100 yuan to buy bad brands, better ones to buy more than five or six hundred yuan. "But the truth is that I did buy more than 20 yuan of sportswear in the United States.

Readers may also be curious, the price of exports to other countries is cheaper than that of China, is it really dumping? Actually, it's not surprising at all. The price of domestic sportswear is mainly expensive in the transportation link.

In the production and sales process of a product, production is one of the links, and the circulation link is also very important. Generally speaking, China's transportation is railway transportation, if you want to apply for a wagon index, according to different local conditions, the additional cost in addition to the freight is between 5,000 and 50,000 yuan. And China's highway tolls will also raise transportation costs a lot.

According to one report, the plane ticket from Guangzhou to Beijing is about 1,200 yuan, and the special ticket is about 700 yuan. If you drive from Guangzhou to Beijing, the toll on the highway alone is already as high as 1,400 yuan. A driver who delivers goods from Guangzhou to Beijing all year round said that there is an additional cost of about 7,000 yuan for each round trip.

If calculated in this way, the transportation cost is between 13,400 and 52,100 yuan. As you can imagine, these expenses will ultimately be spread over the commodity, that is, on each sportswear. In addition, some domestic businessmen have no credit and do not pay for the goods, so manufacturers can only make up for their losses by raising prices. As a result of these reasons, domestic sportswear is more expensive than exported.

The cost of shipping from China to the United States is about more than 3,000 US dollars, which is equivalent to more than 20,000 yuan. Judging from this price, the shipping cost from China to the United States is not much more expensive than that from Guangzhou to Beijing, and may even be cheaper. On the other hand, as long as you sign a contract with a foreign businessman, you basically don't have to worry, the U.S. importer will give you a letter of credit, you can go to the bank for a mortgage, and after production, you will ship the goods, and the money will be in hand, no trouble, less money, but less risk. Coupled with the fact that Chinese labor is cheap, the cost is low, there is no insurance in the United States, and there are no labor unions, how can the price not be low?

So in this case, it should be easy to understand that Chinese goods are accused of dumping, right?

So how should China respond to inappropriate anti-dumping from abroad? The author believes that we strive from the following aspects:

1. Reduce risks, take the road of market diversification and win by quality. Anti-dumping is price discrimination. To prevent the occurrence of antidumping, it is necessary to study the situation in both the international and domestic markets, formulate a correct price strategy, and ensure that we have a clear idea of the situation and have high quality and high prices. Enterprises must develop the market in a purposeful and step-by-step manner, and must not blindly enter and drift with the tide, because export enterprises meet in a narrow way, affecting their own exports and destroying the market developed by others.

2. Actively respond to the lawsuit and defend in a timely manner. After the occurrence of an antidumping case, the most important thing is to have a correct understanding of antidumping and its consequences, actively respond to the lawsuit, and try to avoid the abuse of foreign antidumping measures. After an antidumping case is filed, the enterprises and companies concerned must actively cooperate with the antidumping investigation and strive to maximize the chance of defense.

3. Reasonable and appropriate selection of lawyers. In the selection of lawyers, lawyers who are familiar with the relevant laws of the country where the anti-dumping is located, have practical experience in anti-dumping, are familiar with the national conditions, and have strong public relations ability should be selected.

4. Form a joint force to urge some countries to change their unfair policies and practices. Through the joint action of enterprises and enterprises, we will prove the status quo of China's market economy and urge some countries to revise their anti-dumping policies against China. It is believed that through the best negotiations and the efforts of the enterprise to actively respond to the lawsuit, the enterprise will gradually strive for fair treatment.

Understanding anti-dumping, rational use and response to anti-dumping will provide a better market environment for enterprises to go global.