중국 덤핑마진 산정 방법의 WTO 합치성 검토 - 한국 석유화학제품에 대한 자가생산원가 부인 사례를 중심으로 -

Abstract

With protectionist policies flaring up, quite a few countries abuse trade remedies against dumped imports to protect domestic industries, disrupting the order in international trade. Although China is Korea’s largest trading partner and has maintained close economic and trade relations based on the FTA, Chinese government has relentlessly taken advantage of anti-dumping measures in a bid to protect and foster its domestic industries against Korea. In particular, China’s trade remedies against Korea are mostly targeted at petro-chemicals, which is indicative of Chinese government’s intention to develop domestic petrochemical industry and hold its Korean counterpart in check. On the grounds that petrochemicals are included in Korea’s major exports to China, account for a large share of Korea’s exportation to the latter, and exert significant effects on China’s downstream industries, China’s imposition of anti-dumping duties is likely to have negative impacts on Korean exporters and Chinese downstream sectors and importers. As per the “MOU on Cooperation between Trade Remedy Agencies” signed in 1999, Korea and China meet every year to cooperate on trade remedies, which plays a pivotal role in boosting the bilateral trade and economic relations. In addition, both parties have engaged in a series of discussions on plans to prevent any abuse of trade remedies and to expand free trade. Thus, trade remedies used in practice have been overshadowed by the trade volumes between the two. Still, over the past few years, Chinese authorities in charge of anti-dumping investigation have opted for a method of applying the external purchase prices instead of the own-production cost based on integrated processes, and thereby inflated the dumping margins against Korean petrochemical companies. The foregoing method not only breaks the trust and cooperation the two countries have built but also fails to facilitate Chinese industrial advancement. Concerning China’s calculation of anti-dumping tariff rates and dumping margins in respect of Korean goods based on facts available not the data submitted by Korean companies, and cases of anti-dumping investigation into a series of Korean petrochemicals, whose domestic prices may be regarded as normal prices given the characteristics of domestic market condition, to adjust their rates relative to external purchase prices, this paper analyzed Chinese anti-dumping ordinance and delved into the compliance of its practice with WTO rules. In brief, Chinese anti-dumping ordinance fails to stipulate specific methods of dumping margin calculation, and its practice of rejecting the self-production cost is at odds with WTO’s anti-dumping agreements and relevant precedents. Hence, it is crucial to persistently demand that China should comply with WTO principles regarding its rejection of the self-production cost, and to give priority to reaching an agreement on the issue as soon as possible.