Two new Supreme People's Court regulations on administrative cases of countervailing and anti-dumping could send the nation's governmental departments to the courts.
Under the regulations, which will take effect at the beginning of next year, courts can hear administrative cases where the plaintiffs contest judgments made by State Council departments on countervailing and anti-dumping issues.
Anti-dumping measures fight or alleviate the sale of cheap foreign goods entering a country because the goods could not be sold at regular price in the country of origin.
Countervailing measures such as taxes prevent or alleviate the effects of imports that have been given subsidies from their home country and therefore can be sold at a lower price to the country they are exporting to.
The courts will also handle lawsuits on disputed decisions by these departments on levying anti-dumping and countervailing taxes and cases filed by plaintiffs who disagree with review decisions by these departments.
The departments that are affected are the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation, the State Economic and Trade Commission and the Customs Tariffs Commission of the State Council.
China implemented its current regulations on anti-dumping and countervailing in 1997 to give Chinese enterprises more of an equal footing in the international market where cheaper Chinese products are often the subject to anti-dumping accusations.
The amended regulations on anti-dumping and countervailing issued last year following China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) said that complaints can be filed to courts and related departments for administrative consideration.
Under previous regulations, courts were not involved, according to sources with the Supreme People's Court.
"The two regulations have clarified for the first time that courts in China have the important responsibility of judicial review on the administrative measures of anti-dumping and countervailing by departments of the State Council," said Li Guoguang, vice-president of the court.
"They have significant implications for the improvement of China's judicial review system and the better trial of administrative cases of anti-dumping and countervailing," he said.
(China Daily December 4, 2002)
