Application Of Particular Market Situation (Pms) Provision: A Proxy Tool To Continue Nme Treatment

Abstract

WTO Trade Remedies works as an exception to the principles of free trade among nations and are invoked by the member countries to mitigate economic loss caused by dumping, subsidies, and against unprecedented increase in imports. They are often viewed as instruments to constrain the member countries in order to respond unilaterally to promote their own interest. One such methodology to arrive at injury by a particular member country is Particular Market Situation s, under WTO legislative and procedural framework. However, the same lacks clarity regarding its application by the investigating agencies, resultantly there is lot of inconsistency in the practices of the investigating agencies pertaining to the invocation of PMS for the calculation of normal value in anti-dumping investigations. In the existing state of affairs, it is very critical to address this issue because such unjustified as well as incorrect invocation of PMS by the investigating agencies expose the threat of imposition of retaliatory tariffs. This may, needless to state, shall adversely affect the global trading system or may even escalate to trade-war. Moreover, post the expiration of Article 15 of China accession protocol in December 2016, the member countries have made subsequent legislative modifications providing an ambit of wide powers in the hands of investigating agencies for application of PMS. The issue comes with application of PMS to not only Non-market economy but also Market economy. The authors attempt to offer an analytical study on the application of PMS focused on market economies, alongside highlighting the practices of different investigating agencies with an aim to focus on the jurisprudential development of the concept as a whole.