Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens have been supportive of the government's reforms to strengthen antidumping legislation to provide greater protection to Australian manufacturers. However, we believe there are some further key amendments that would assist Australian companies to more readily establish a case of dumping and compete on a level playing field with our trading partners. That is obviously a key issue for all exporters, and even importers, in this country.

The Greens are proposing two amendments to the Customs Amendment (Anti-dumping Measures) Bill 2013 to address gaps in the legislation in relation to determining 'normal value' where a market situation is found in antidumping investigations and making import data more accessible, particularly to companies filing complaints. In the first amendment, we seek to include a new subsection in section 269TAC to provide that, where the minister is satisfied that costs of goods are affected by a particular market situation—that is, that sales in the market are not suitable for use in determining a price under normal circumstances—the minister can determine the normal value of the goods, having regard to all relevant information. Like anything relating to market efficiency and business decisions, information is the key. The need to have access to all relevant information is the main point that we want to stress here. There cannot be anything wrong with providing more information and more transparency to help fix potential problems. 'All relevant information' can include records kept by the exporter reflecting the costs associated with the production and sale of like goods.

The amendment is based on counsel advice provided to the International Trade Remedies Forum. Australia has granted China market economy status for antidumping purposes. The amendment seeks to reduce the advantage of competitor countries that do not consider China a market economy and enhance our ability to remedy dumping from industries in non-market economies.

Another issue that has been raised and which would be familiar to those who have been following this issue for some time, and no doubt everyone in this chamber has been, is the difficulty sometimes faced by people who want to either bring complaints or potentially elevate that to proceedings when they feel they have been a victim of dumping. The amendment moved by the Greens would allow persons to have access to import data. This is essentially the same kind of import data that is already required to be provided. It would assist in the enforcement of the measures contained in this bill. I commend these amendments to the Senate.