Eu "non-market Economy" And Its Anti-dumping Rules

As a legal and technical term in anti-dumping investigation, "non-market economy"(NME) is a very important concept in the European Union anti-dumping law in the determination of normal value and anti-dumping duties. From the perspective of Westerners, the so-called NME countries do not rely heavily on the cornerstone of market economy — the price mechanism, so special difficulties may exist in determining the normal value for imports from those countries. Instead of their own statistics, the normal value of the imports from NME countries is established on the basis of the domestic prices of the like products in a market economy third country. Meanwhile in proceedings involving NME countries, EU will impose a uniform anti-dumping duty on all exporters originating in such countries without referring to their individual circumstances.The EU anti-dumping law neither has a definition nor provides criteria for determining the NME country. The Commission has broad discretion to determine whether it is a NME country or not. If EU regards one as a NME country, the Analogue Country Rule in calculating the normal value and Single Duty Rule in determining anti-dumping duties will be applied.As the major target and victim of the EU's NME policy, China has been subject to discriminatory treatment for long time since 1970's. Although according to the Council Regulation (EC) No.905/98 EU removed China from the list of non-market economy countries in 1998, the analogy country rules still apply to the Chinese exporters unless they can submit sufficient evidence to prove their operation under the market conditions. In practice, only a minority involved in anti-dumping proceedings can measure up to the EU's strict criteria. But it is undeniable that this amendment makes progress, which opens the door for the possibility to compare directly the export prices with the domestic prices in China.