Press Releases

1. 　On September 11th (September 10th Geneva time), the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) issued its report in the case “Korea – Anti-Dumping Duties on Pneumatic Valves From Japan”, in which Japan had filed its complaints against the Republic of Korea (ROK) under the WTO dispute settlement procedures. In its report, the Appellate Body finds that the ROK’s measures of imposing anti-dumping duties on valves for pneumatic transmission (pneumatic valves) from Japan are inconsistent with the Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (Anti-Dumping Agreement), and recommends that the ROK bring its measures into conformity with its obligations under the Agreement.
2. 　Following this report, Japan calls on the ROK to faithfully and promptly bring its WTO-inconsistent measures into conformity with its obligations under the Anti-Dumping Agreement.

[Reference]
(1)On August 19, 2015, the ROK began to impose anti-dumping duties on valves for pneumatic transmission from Japan (which were due to expire in five years) on the basis of its determination that the dumped imports of valves for pneumatic transmission from Japan had caused material injury to the ROK’s domestic industry.
(2)Considering that the ROK’s measures of imposing anti-dumping duties on pneumatic valves from Japan could be inconsistent with obligations under the Anti-Dumping Agreement, Japan requested consultations with the ROK pursuant to the WTO dispute settlement procedures in March 2016. Following the consultations in April 2016, Japan requested the establishment of a panel in June 2016. The Panel was established in July 2016.
(3)On April 12, 2018, the WTO circulated a panel report. The panel report supported a subset of Japan’s claims, found that the ROK’s anti-dumping measures were inconsistent with the Anti-Dumping Agreement and recommended the ROK to bring its measures into conformity with its obligations under the Agreement. However, the Panel concluded that Japan’s several other claims were outside the Panel's terms of reference and thus neither considered nor resolved them(note).
(4)Japan appealed to the Appellate Body in May 2018. The ROK also appealed certain issues of law in June 2018.
(5)According to the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU), an Appellate Body report shall be adopted by the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) and unconditionally accepted by the parties to the dispute within 30 days following its circulation to the Members. (No further appeals can be made on the Appellate Body Report.)

(note) Except for a few legal points, the Appellate Body did not make findings of WTO-consistency for the points the Panel decided not to consider while the Appellate Body found error in the Panel’s decision not to consider them.