Trade Remedies

Neste artigo, a professora Juliana Domingues (FDRP/USP), advoga pela participação do Cade na Camex como forma de melhorar o diálogo entre as duas políticas públicas. Entende a autora que defesa comercial e defesa da concorrência são complementares e interdependentes e que sua interação já ocorre no mercado. Portanto, negligenciar essa interação pode resultar na definição pelos agentes públicos de diretrizes equivocadas.

Global trade liberalization, promoted by GATT/WTO, stimulated major world economies to extensively cut their average tariff levels through a number of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements. However, simultaneously with the reduction of tariffs and in order to protect their national interests in the changing global environment, member states adjusted their trade policies toward a more frequent application of trade remedies. In this paper, the authors empirically examined the actual imposition cases of trade remedies by Japan. The study results demonstrate that anti-dumping duties are the most frequently applied trade remedies administrated on intermediate products, primarily from developing countries (China, Republic of Korea, South Africa, Pakistan). However, the number of these measures actually imposed by Japan is not comparable with the frequency of similar measures initiated against Japanese exporters abroad. Actual imposition cases of countervailing duties and safeguards remain low, nevertheless Japan shows concerns regarding the upward rising trend of safeguards in the world. The study conducted envisages a more frequent application of trade remedies by Japan due to the gradual increase in imports of manufactured goods from developing countries. The imports from the respective countries is expected to further expand in the context of a new strategic approach to emerging economies aiming at building new extensive networks of regional trade agreements as stipulated by the Strategy of the Global Outreach drafted by the Japanese government.

The ongoing plurilateral WTO Environmental Goods Agreement negotiations reflect the two defining dynamics that affect global environmental and trade governance. First of all, the rising trade remedies against environmental goods increased the cost of pursuing green growth for countries. Secondly, the looming fragmentation caused by mega-regionalism, such as the Trans-Pacific- Partnership, and its trade diversion effects might disincentivize developing countries from pursuing environmentally-friendly growth in order to obtain market access. Current negotiations for a plurilateral approach reflect the efforts of multilateral systems to confront these challenges through a reform of the rules of global trade architecture, thereby paving the way for further green
growth. That’s why this paper is divided into three sections. The first one analyzes the trade remedies targeting environmental goods, and its consequences for global environmental governance. The second section analyses whether the current plurilateral approach can provide developing
countries with an alternative incentive for green growth to compensate the potential trade diversion of the Trans-Pacific-Partnership. The third part gives a brief overview of the progress of the ongoing negotiations.