ANTI-DUMPING (SODIUM CHLORATE) (Hansard, 6 July 1960)

§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade (Mr. John Rodgers)

I beg to move, That the Anti-Dumping (No. 1) Order, 1960 (S.I., 1960, No. 959), dated 1st June, 1960, a copy of which was laid before this House on 8th June, be approved. This Order imposes an anti-dumping duty of £19 per ton on sodium chlorate originating in the Soviet Zone of Germany. Sodium chlorate is mainly used as a weed-killer. The United Kingdom manufacturer applied to the Board of Trade last August for a duty under the Customs Duties (Dumping and Subsidies) Act, 1957. The Board followed its normal practice of satisfying itself that dumping was actually taking place, and that it was causing, or threatening, material injury to the United Kingdom industry. We made a public announcement last December—once we were satisfied that there was a prima facie case on both counts—inviting representations from interested parties. These representations were carefully considered, along with the evidence from our own investigations.

As a result, the Board reached the conclusion that there was dumping; that it was causing material injury to the United Kingdom manufacturers, and that an anti-dumping duty would be in the national interest. The Customs Duties (Dumping and Subsidies) Act defines dumping as selling at an export price below the fair market price in the country of origin. Ordinarily, the "fair market price" is taken as the selling price on the domestic market in the exporting country. In the present case, however, we had reason to believe that the price in the Soviet Zone of Germany was an arbitrary one. There is, moreover, no free rate of exchange for the East German currency by which the domestic price could be related to the export price, which is quoted in sterling by the East German exporter.

We have therefore used the power in Section 7 (3) of the Act, which allows the Board of Trade to determine the "fair market price" by reference to the price charged by the exporting country for sales in any other export maket. We 649 have obtained information about East German prices in several countries in Western Europe and elsewhere in the free world, and it is clear that sodium chlorate has been exported to the United Kingdom at prices substantially lower than those which the East German exporter has been charging elsewhere. We have established the margin of dumping by reference to a figure which seems fairly typical of the price in other markets.

So far as material injury is concerned we are satisfied that sodium chlorate from the Soviet Zone of Germany has been selling here at prices substantially below the United Kingdom manufacturer's costs of production, and that he has been forced to sell at a loss in order to avoid losing too big a share of the market. Even so, East German material has been gaining an increasing share of the market at the expense of the United Kingdom producer and of other traditional exporters to this country. We therefore considered that these imports from the Soviet Zone of Germany represented unfair competition and I hope that the House will agree that this Order is justified.