Japan to ease conditions for firms applying for antidumping tariffs

TOKYO, Dec. 2 Kyodo - Japan is set to ease conditions from next spring for companies to petition the
government to invoke antidumping and other special tariffs on foreign products
which they believe to be sold in Japan at unfairly low prices, officials said
Tuesday.
The government will enhance transparency in the application procedures for such
tariffs and quickly conduct investigations to decide whether to impose special
duties, based on recommendations compiled by a Finance Ministry advisory panel.
Following a report by the Council on Customs, Tariff, Foreign Exchange and
Other Transactions released Tuesday, the government aims to amend relevant
rules by the end of March and carry out steps in the next fiscal year starting
April 1 to make it easier for Japanese companies to file for special tariffs.
Those tariffs include countervailing, punitive and safeguard duties, the
officials said.
At present, Japanese companies requesting the invocation of special tariffs
need to provide evidence that they have suffered damage from the dumping
practices of foreign businesses. Thus, it often took about a year before the
government officially received the firms' application.
The government is set to relax the application procedures by allowing companies
to present the evidence after filing for special tariffs. The authorities will
also be required to decide whether to launch investigations within two months
after receiving the firms' requests.
Japan has so far levied special tariffs on cheap imports a total of seven
times, but Japanese companies have been slapped with antidumping tariffs by
other countries in 105 cases.
The number of times Tokyo has invoked special tariffs is far lower than other
economies such as the United States, the European Union, China and India.
The ministry officials expect that an increasing number of Japanese firms will
file for such tariffs to protect them from an influx of unfairly low-priced
imports.
==Kyodo