Anti-dumping Measures
The Korea International Trade Association announced on December 7 that the number of anti-dumping measures against South Korea increased from 106 to 132 between the end of last year and the end of November this year.
It added that the number of anti-dumping and countervailing duty measures against South Korea fell from eight to seven and that of safeguard measures against it fell from 61 to 43 during the same period.
Anti-dumping measures are to restrict imports by means of the imposition of high tariffs on companies and countries engaged in dumping. These measures target specific countries and, as such, can be relatively easily applied. Safeguard measures are to raise tariffs or restrict imports in a case where companies are likely to suffer from severe damage as a result of a temporary rapid increase in the imports of specific items. The two are different from each other in that the latter target the entire world. Countervailing duties are for an importing country to impose tariffs equivalent to industry-specific incentives or subsidies provided in an exporting country for price competitiveness enhancement.
“Anti-dumping measures are more about confrontations with enterprises producing products to which the measures are applied,” the association explained, adding, “On the contrary, countervailing duties are more about disputes between governments and, as such, tend to be shunned in many cases.”