
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 24, 1993                   TAG: 9312290008
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Journal of Commerce
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

U.S. TACKLES DUMPING

Under pressure from import-sensitive industries and their allies on Capitol Hill, the United States will propose major changes today in the anti-dumping provisions of a draft world trade agreement, U.S. officials said.

The changes to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the international body that governs most world trade, would preserve, and in some cases strengthen, U.S. rules against dumping. Dumping is the sale by a foreign manufacturer of goods at unfairly low prices to capture a larger market share and drive domestic competitors out of business.

The proposal is likely to be opposed by major exporters such as Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore, which often have been hit by punitive duties under the U.S. dumping law.

The dumping plan was one part of a swirl of negotiations in Washington on Tuesday, as top Clinton administration trade officials huddled with their European Community counterparts to move the long-delayed trade talks forward.

Dubbed the Uruguay Round after the country in which they began in 1986, the talks aim to overhaul world trade rules and cut tariffs an average of one-third for the more than 100 countries participating.

The new U.S. offer on dumping comes only three weeks before a Dec. 15 deadline for the round imposed by the U.S. Congress. Although deadlines in the talks have passed before, President Clinton and his aides have given every sign that they are determined to finish the agreement this time.

One provision of the new U.S. plan would preserve, and perhaps toughen, rules to prevent dumping countries from skirting penalties by shipping goods from another country.

Another would ease the draft agreement's requirement that an industry that has obtained a dumping order be forced to prove its case again after five years. Critics of current U.S. law say it yields endless litigation for foreign companies.

A change expected to be in the new plan would limit exemptions for start-up companies to six months. This provision, pushed by the U.S. computer-chip industry, is aimed at curbing dumping from Asian competitors, but could hurt new U.S. companies trying to sell their goods abroad.

by CNB