Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs ) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This is the sixth tranche of anti-dumping legislation introduced by this government into the parliament in the past two years. Tranche 1 which passed the parliament in November 2011 imposed a time limit on ministerial decision making and anti-dumping in countervailing cases. It clarified that all appropriate and relevant factors which may indicate material injury to an Australian industry specifically listed as factors to which the minister may have regard and clarified that parties with a clear interest in anti-dumping matters are expressly given an opportunity to participate in anti-dumping investigations.

Tranche 2 which passed the parliament in February last year established a new appeals process, the anti-dumping review panel, to replace the existing appeals mechanism established in the legislation and established the International Trade Remedies Forum in legislation.

Tranche 3 removed a limitation to the inclusion of profit when constructing a normal value of a good and removed the need for a separate review of anti-dumping measures and a continuation inquiry when they occur in close proximity to one another.

Tranche 4 better aligned the anti-dumping and countervailing system with the systems of our WTO counterparts. It introduced provisions designed to address the circumvention of trade measures and strengthened the ability of the anti-dumping system to address parties non-cooperation during the investigation process.

Tranche 5 which passed the parliament in March this year established the Australian Anti-Dumping Commission.

Tranche 1 is now operational. Tranches 2, 3 and 4 will come into effect next month. This includes the anti-dumping review panel to provide timely and appropriate merits review of anti-dumping decisions.

Today I can announce the three individuals who have been appointed to the panel:

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Stephen Skehill, the outgoing Trade Measures Review Officer, for his dedication to this role over the past two years.

He has set the precedent for thorough and reasoned review that is inherent in a truly independent review process—and I expect the panel will follow his good work with their own.

Tranche 5 established the Australian Anti-Dumping Commission. It will start its work on 1 July.

I expect to be in a position to announce the appointment of the Anti-Dumping Commissioner shortly.

The new Anti-Dumping Commission will start work with significantly more funding.

In December the Prime Minister, the Minister for Industry and Innovation and I announced an additional $24.4 million for the administration of our anti-dumping system.

That money was included in the budget delivered two weeks ago.

These bills, the Customs Amendment (Anti-Dumping Measures) Bill 2013 and the Customs Tariff (Anti-Dumping) Amendment Bill 2013, represent the next step in the government's anti-dumping reforms.

Together these bills do three key things:

I will now step through each of these in detail.

Removal of the mandatory consideration of the lesser duty rule

These bills will remove, in certain circumstances, the minister's mandatory consideration of the lesser duty rule.

This means that the minister will have discretion to consider the desirability of fixing a lesser duty, in certain circumstances.

These circumstances are where:

In these complex cases, where injurious dumping or subsidisation has been found, the minister will be given the discretion to impose the maximum permitted duties.

Clarification of the application of retrospective duties

The bill makes changes to the retrospective duties provisions to align the legislation more closely with the relevant WTO agreements.

The amendments also make it clear that the relevant minister is the 'decision maker' for certain elements required to be established in the process of applying retrospective duties.

The bill will also make a number of amendments to the existing retrospective duties provisions to improve their structure and consistency.

The retrospective duties provisions are currently very difficult to understand, indeed, they have never been used.

We are making these reforms to improve the accessibility of the retrospective duties provisions and clarify their application.

We are also revising the guidelines on the application of these provisions to make their operation clearer.

Introduction of a new type of anti - circumvention inquiry to address ' sales at a loss ' cases

Thirdly, this bill introduces a new type of anti-circumvention inquiry to address 'sales at a loss' cases.

Last year we passed legislation to introduce an anti-circumvention framework into Australia's anti-dumping system.

The reforms in this bill will take that framework one step further by addressing situations where anti-dumping measures have been ineffective.

A new type of anti-circumvention inquiry will be able to be conducted faster than other inquiries, taking 100 days, instead of 155 days.

This type of inquiry can be initiated following an application from an Australian industry where there is evidence that prices of the imported goods have not increased in line with the imposition of the duties.

The minister will also have the power to commence this type of inquiry.

The bill will also make a complementary change to the present provisions of the legislation that will allow more rigorous treatment of transactions where evidence suggests that the price is influenced by a commercial or other relationship between the parties.

This will allow 'sales at a loss' situations to be addressed at the outset, in both establishing the existence of dumping, and in setting an appropriate level of measures.

Conclusion

In developing these reforms, the government has consulted closely with members of the International Trade Remedies Forum.

The forum has played a substantial role in providing advice to the government on the operation of our anti-dumping system—and on options for reform.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all members of the forum members for their input to date, much of which has found its way into these tranches of legislation.

I will continue to work closely with the forum and I expect it will continue its vigorous discussion and input on policy development.

This bill is not the last word on anti-dumping reform.

There is a lot more work to be done—and I look forward to working with members of the International Trade Remedies Forum, and others, on this important task.

I commend this bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.