U.S. to End Zeroing

March 9, 2006

On March 6, 2006, the Department of Commerce published a Federal Register notice stating that it will abandon its current methodology of calculating dumping margins in antidumping duty investigations.  Presently, in determining the average dumping margin, the Department treats all transactions in which there is no dumping as having a “zero” margin, rather than applying the actual percent by which there is no dumping.

The Department stated that it will discontinue its practice of zeroing in antidumping duty investigations in light of a recent WTO panel report, which found that the United States’ reliance on this methodology is inconsistent with its WTO obligations.  The WTO panel report, circulated on October 31, 2005, found that the use of zeroing in the antidumping duty investigations subject to review, was inconsistent with Article 2.4.2 of the Antidumping Agreement.

 The Department has not proposed an alternative to “zeroing,” but is soliciting comments from the public which must be submitted until April 5, 2006. Rebuttal comments are due by April 20, 2006.  After receiving all comments, the Department will publish a final notice in the Federal Register on the new methodology for calculation of weighted average dumping margins in antidumping duty investigations.