On 22 June 2011, the Minister for Home Affairs and the Minister for Trade announced changes to Australia’s Anti-Dumping and Countervailing System. Dumping occurs where a company exports its goods to Australia at a price below the price it charges in its home market or below cost. Where that dumping materially injures an Australian business producing similar goods, additional Customs duties can be applied as a remedy. Countervailing duties may be imposed on imports subsidised by foreign governments that cause or threaten material injury to an Australian producer of 'like goods'. The Government’s changes to the anti-dumping system take account of the recommendations of the Productivity Commission report tabled last year, Senator Nick Xenophon’s Private Members Bill, the views of state and territory governments and submissions made to the Government by stakeholders. The Regulation Impact Statement notes that although the Commission‘s recommendations to introduce a bounded public interest test and to limit the duration of anti-dumping measures reflects the Competition Principles Agreement, the Government’s changes still represent an improvement over current regulations, despite not yielding as great a net benefit. The Regulation Impact Statement was prepared by the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service and was assessed as adequate by the Office of Best Practice Regulation.
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