At the November 2001 Ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Doha, Qatar, WTO member countries launched a new round of trade talks known as the Doha Development Agenda (DDA). One of the negotiating objectives in the DDA called for "clarifying and improving disciplines" on trade remedies addressed in the WTO Antidumping Agreement, known formally as the Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (hereinafter known as the Antidumping Agreement or ADA) and the WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (hereinafter the Subsidies Agreement or ASCM). Many WTO members regard trade remedy reform as a "make or break" issue in terms of their acceptance of any final DDA agreement. This report analyzes the issue in three parts. First, background information and contextual analysis are presented. Second, the report focuses on the WTO discussions on trade remedies and their part in the overall negotiations within the DDA. Third, the report presents a more specific overview of major reform proposals; for example, those that seek to end "zeroing," to mandatorily shorten the length that trade remedy duties can be assessed, or to provide special treatment for developing country WTO members. Background: U.S. Laws and WTO Agreements

This section provides an overview of U.S. trade remedy laws and procedures as well as an overview of the disciplines that the United States and other WTO members agreed to in the Antidumping and Subsidies Agreements. In addition, some countries who are frequent targets of trade remedy actions (many of whom are "nontraditional users") by "traditional" users (the United States, the European Union, and Australia, for example) claim that their industries are adversely affected by the use of trade remedy actions against them. In addition, many supporters believe that the existence of trade remedy laws helps to build support for increased trade liberalization because industries and workers that could be adversely affected by competing imports know that there is a "safety valve" that they can use to protect them from unfair trading practices or import surges. However, there are major themes that have emerged for which there seems to be broad support among WTO members. Developing countries are especially interested in seeing a mandatory rule applied to exports from their countries, and have also proposed that this practice could be included as part of a "special and differential treatment" package of trade concessions offered by developed nations to developing countries. U.S. U.S. The United States favors any revisions to the trade remedy rules that would "provide greater predictability in global trade and reduce the need to resort to trade remedy actions," because they would provide greater stability to world trade than any mandatory limits to the duration of trade remedy measures. These negotiations are also being carried out as part of the talks in the Negotiating Group on Rules. In a March 2010 report to the WTO Trade Negotiations Committee, the Chair of the rules negotiating group reported that the provisional mechanism is functioning well, but that consensus on the methodology for a implementing a permanent Transparency Mechanism has not been reached. Conclusion and Options for Congress

When Congress granted presidential Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) in 2002 ( P.L. ADA Proposals

Most of the proposed changes in the ADA, if adopted, could further restrict the ability of all WTO members to grant relief to import-competing industries.
At the November 2001 Ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Doha, Qatar, member countries launched a new round of trade talks known as the Doha Development Agenda (DDA). Discussions continue, although negotiations at this time seem to be at an impasse.
One of the negotiating objectives in the DDA called for "clarifying and improving disciplines" under the WTO Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (Antidumping Agreement or ADA) and the WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (Subsidies Agreement or ASCM). The frequent use of trade remedies by the United States and other developed nations—and increasingly, developing countries—has come under criticism by some WTO members as being protectionist. In a March 2010 report, the chairman of the rules negotiations mentioned that consensus had been reached on many technical issues, but that there was no agreement on the larger "political" issues.
Some in Congress cite U.S. use of trade remedies as necessary to protect U.S. firms and workers from unfair competition. Some also credit the existence of trade remedies with helping to increase public support for additional trade liberalization measures. These groups would like increased trade enforcement of trade remedies and intellectual property laws. Others in Congress, especially those who represent U.S. importers, manufacturers, and export-oriented businesses, tend to support liberalizing the ADA and ASCM, in ways that could make use of U.S. trade remedy laws less frequent and relief harder to obtain. For example, there is support in Congress for legislation that would require administering authorities to determine whether or not a trade remedy action is in the overall public interest before such a measure can be imposed.
DDA negotiations involve Congress because any trade agreement made by the United States must be implemented by legislation, thus Congress also has an important oversight role in trade negotiations. For example, preserving "the ability of the United States to enforce rigorously its trade laws" was included as a principal negotiating objective in legislation granting presidential Trade Promotion Authority—the Trade Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-210).
In the WTO talks, the positions of major players in trade remedy talks are well-documented by position papers written by WTO members that are circulated through the WTO Negotiating Group on Rules. Major themes that have emerged include limiting the use of trade remedy actions in favor of "price undertakings," reducing the level of duties assessed per action by ending mandatory offsets (also known as "zeroing"), or limiting the duration of trade remedy measures through mandatory "sunset" reviews. Some members also support placing more restrictions on the ability of officials to grant relief to domestic industries through the use of economic interest tests and other administrative procedures and "special and differential treatment" for developing countries. Some countries see revision of the ADA and ASCM and other WTO disciplines on trade remedies as a "make or break" issue if the Doha Development Agenda is to succeed.
This report examines trade remedy issues in DDA in three parts. The first part provides background information and contextual analysis. The second section focuses on how these issues fit into the DDA. A third section provides a more specific overview of major reform proposals that are being considered.