Will 9th Ministerial Conference in Bali Advance the WTO's Doha Round?

Photo: Roberto Azevedo, Director-General of the WTO

Comprehensive and far-reaching are the news reports describing the most recent bilateral free trade agreement, signed by Singapore and the European Union's trade bloc of nations. There seems to be a lot of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements being signed in the global market, but not much within the Doha Round.

Nations are entering into all types of agreements to help facilitate global trade. The EU has made entry into global trade agreements a key part of its global economic strategy for its member nations. In 2013, Iceland and China entered into a Free Trade Agreement. Japan joined the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks this summer. The African Union elected its first woman leader in 2012 and soon announced that increasing intra-African trade would be at the center of its agenda. In March 2013, the BRICS -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- reached a deal to establish a global trade development bank to rival the IMF.

The question for those still watching the Doha Round, especially as trade leaders head to the World Trade Organization's 9th Ministerial Conference in Bali, Indonesia, December 3-6, 2013, is whether the Doha Round concept is keeping us from fully participating in something more dynamic and multifaceted -- agreeing and acting on global trade opportunities.

On September 1, 2013, Roberto Azevedo became Director-General of the WTO. Before Azevedo entered office, the WTO cut its 2013 global trade growth forecast from 3.3 percent down to 2.5 percent. What does this mean for the 159 members of the WTO, which now even includes Russia? Are its resources being wasted by continuing to create agendas for the Doha Round talks. The talks started in 2001 and have continued to meet in gorgeous city after city, with each ending in impasse after impasse. Not one agreement.

Contrasts this with the significant bilateral and multilateral trade agreements by and between nations and trade blocs of nations. Smaller global trade deals between nations constitute and govern the greatest activity governed by the global agreements of nations which, in theory and practice, should help their respective national citizens. Maybe global trade is best facilitated by national synergies, the laws of supply and demand, and the ability of global business leaders to broker deals and influence policy-makers to enter into agreements that help secure favorable and fair global trade opportunities.

The host nation for the MC9 has said that the beautiful setting of Bali, Indonesia could just be the magic the Doha Round needs. The best thing that can happen to the Doha Round talks in Bali, if it ends with no productive advancement, is that the Doha Round be acknowledged as an inefficient model of global trade facilitation by the WTO.  Maybe then, global trade leaders can focus their energy on meeting under trade models that work.

SolarWorld Appeals Commerce Findings to Court of International Trade

 Image courtesy of Franky242/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

SolarWorld Appeals U.S. Department of Commerce Determination in Antidumping Duties for Chinese Solar-Panels to U.S. Court of International Trade

SolarWorld, the largest U.S. solar manufacturer for more than 35 years, has submitted arguments to appeal U.S. Department of Commerce determinations that the company believes weakened resulting trade remedies. In particular, SolarWorld argues that numerous Chinese solar producers failed to show they were free of Chinese government control and that Commerce wrongly undervalued aluminum frames used in Chinese solar-panel production, significantly understated antidumping duties.

"We are exhausting all avenues to engage well-established international trade law in countering China's illegal trade aggression, which continues to siphon clean-energy business and jobs from the U.S. economy, " said Gordon Brinser, president of SolarWorld Industries America Inc., based in Oregon. "U.S. costs to make and deliver solar technology for the U.S. market are lower than those of Chinese producers. Our better record of solar-equipment reliability, R&D and quality also is far longer. Moreover, we have the law -- and history -- on our side: Free trade is not trade without rules.
"But to fairly compete, we need our federal trade-law enforcement system to show fortitude in applying that law," Brinser said. "It is not enough to adjudicate cases without attention to the underlying industry and market realities of resulting remedies. We are still asking for these thoroughly investigated illegal trade practices to be actually stopped."

SolarWorld led the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing, numbering about 240 U.S. solar installation, production and financial employers, in backing trade cases challenging China's anticompetitive campaign to subsidize massive overbuilding of an export-only solar industry and illegally export solar products at dumped, or artificially low, prices in the U.S. market. In late 2012, the U.S. government imposed duties ranging from about 31 percent to 250 percent.

In appeals filed with the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York, SolarWorld argues that dozens of Chinese solar manufacturers failed to show they were free of Chinese government ownership and control. Some companies, for instance, failed even to detail their ownership. In that light, SolarWorld says, these companies should not have received "separate" antidumping rates, but instead should have been subject to a China-wide rate of 250 percent.

In addition, the company's brief argues that Commerce erroneously set aside a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) ruling which determined the proper classification of aluminum frames used by one of the biggest Chinese producers in its solar panels. By failing to use the proper classification, SolarWorld argues, Commerce substantially undervalued the aluminum frames and therefore understated antidumping margins against all Chinese companies.

Chinese aluminum extrusions also are subject to substantial trade duties as a result of Chinese dumping and subsidies resulting from another case. In June, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that a federal grand jury convened in Puerto Rico had indicted five individuals and three companies on suspicion of smuggling aluminum extrusions under fraudulent documentation into the U.S. market to circumvent duties in that case.

Similarly, Commerce began investigating potential trade-duty evasion and circumvention in the solar case in April. The department asked CBP to undertake enhanced import reviews and potential enforcement based on evidence that some manufacturers and importers of Chinese-made solar panels were misreporting and underreporting their imports to evade new tariffs in the solar cases.
In particular, Commerce is investigating numerous Chinese producers who claim to use non-Chinese cells in their solar panels to ensure that their claims are accurate. Many Chinese producers have said they are legally avoiding the trade remedies by exploiting a loophole opened by Commerce when it determined that they could import solar panels duty-free if they fabricated the panels in their Chinese factories from solar cells manufactured in third countries.

SolarWorld also appealed Commerce's so-called scope ruling, which created the loophole, to the Court of International Trade. Briefing on that important issue will begin after briefing is concluded on the antidumping appeals.

About SolarWorld

SolarWorld AG manufactures solar power systems and in doing so contributes to a cleaner energy supply worldwide. The company, located in Bonn, employs approximately 2,500 people and carries out production in Freiberg, Germany, and Hillsboro, Ore. From raw material silicon to the solar module, SolarWorld manages all stages of production -- including its own research and development. Through an international distribution network, SolarWorld supplies customers all over the world with solar modules and complete systems. The company maintains high social standards at all locations across the globe, and has committed itself to resource- and energy-efficient production. SolarWorld has been publically traded on the stock market since 1999. More information at www.solarworld-usa.com

CONTACT: SolarWorld Industries America 

Devon Cichoski, 805-388-6388
Media Relations Manager
Mobile: 805-377-2905
Devon.Cichoski@SolarWorld-USA.com

 
SOURCE: SolarWorld