FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	Contact:	George Felcyn
April 18, 2006		The PBN Company
		Tel.

CITAC CALLS ON COMMERCE DEPARTMENT TO STOP “ZEROING” PRACTICE
FOLLOWING WTO RULING

Washington DC — The Consuming Industries Trade Action Coalition (CITAC) called on the Department of Commerce to cease the practice of “zeroing” in antidumping determinations following the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body decision today declaring that the practice is inconsistent with WTO rules.

“Zeroing in antidumping cases artificially inflates dumping margins by selectively ignoring certain transactions in the dumping margin calculation — that is, non-dumped transactions that would reduce or eliminate the margin of dumping,” said CITAC Executive Director Steve Alexander. “In so doing, ‘zeroing’ ends up punishing U.S. consumers of imported products.”

Zeroing refers to the treatment of U.S. export sales when they are compared to “normal value,” or the foreign value of similar goods. Goods that are sold for less than their normal value are considered “dumped.” Often, however, transactions in the U.S. occur at prices higher than the relevant “normal value.” The Commerce Department’s practice has been to ignore those higher than normal value sales by treating them as “zero margin” sales rather than averaging them into the calculation, which could reduce — or negate — dumping margins. Today’s WTO ruling declares that such “negative margin” sales should be fully counted, thereby offsetting the “positive margin” sales to arrive at a margin of dumping for all the sales of a covered product

Many American manufacturing companies source inputs such as steel, cement and lumber from overseas. When excessive antidumping duties are imposed, the protection comes at a high price for these U.S. consuming industries. “By ensuring that the calculation of dumping duties is conducted fairly, consuming industries would no longer be hurt unnecessarily,” said Alexander.

“Recognizing that negative comparisons exist is basic to the fairness of the dumping calculation,” noted CITAC Counsel Lewis Leibowitz, a partner in the law firm of Hogan & Hartson LLP. “An accurate measure of dumping can only be achieved when all pricing comparisons — both positive and negative — are factored into the calculation.”

Concluded Alexander, “The Administration, Congress and the courts, as well as the WTO, are starting to recognize that U.S. manufacturers are hurt from excessive protectionism. Recently, the Administration has opened the door to changing its policy on zeroing, Congress has finally repealed the damaging Byrd Amendment, and the courts have ruled that Byrd Amendment distributions on goods imported from Canada and Mexico are contrary to law. CITAC is committed to work for further improvements to the trade remedy laws, not to ‘weaken’ them, but rather to improve them so that they work for all Americans.”

CITAC is a coalition of companies and organizations committed to promoting a trade arena where U.S. consuming industries and their workers have access to global markets for imports that enhance the international competitiveness of American firms.

For additional information, visit citac.info or contact George Felcyn at The PBN Company at or .