年美国成全球反倾销诉讼最大发起国

The US has overtaken India as the leading user of anti-dumping and other trade defence cases, with China and its steel sector the biggest target, according to research.

研究显示，美国已经取代印度成为反倾销和其他贸易保护案件的最大发起国，而中国及其钢铁行业正是美国的最大目标。

The data highlight the growing anxieties in some sectors of industry about what they see as unfair competition from Chinese rivals.

该数据突显出，某些工业部门对他们认为来自中国对手的不公平竞争感到日益担忧。

The research comes at a time of increasing anti-China rhetoric in US politics, and ahead of three politically sensitive anti-dumping cases this summer against Chinese steel imports that could result in the US imposing punitive duties of as much as 500 per cent.

该研究的公布正值美国政界反中国言论日益增加之际，此外，今年夏天3起针对从中国进口的钢铁产品的政治敏感反倾销案件即将作出裁决，可能导致美方对中国企业施加高达500%的惩罚性关税。

But the developments also point to the vast gap in the use of such cases between the US and EU, where a debate is under way over whether to grant China “market economy” status in the World Trade Organisation, a concession that would make it even harder to bring anti-dumping cases.

但是，这些进展也指向美国和欧盟在利用此类案件上的巨大差异，欧盟目前正在讨论是否要赋予中国世界贸易组织(WTO)框架下的“市场经济”地位——这一让步会使对中国提起反倾销案变难。

According to the annual Global Trade Protection Report, companies in the US launched 43 anti-dumping cases in 2015 and a further 22 anti-subsidy investigations aimed at securing countervailing duties. The US took the lead in both areas, overtaking India and Brazil, which launched the most cases in 2014 and 2013.

一年一度的《全球贸易保护报告》(Global Trade Protection Report)显示，2015年美国企业发起了43起反倾销案件，以及另外22起旨在征收反补贴税的反补贴调查。美国在这两方面均处于领先位置，超越了分别在2014年和2013年发起最多案件的印度和巴西。

The EU filed just 12 anti-dumping cases in 2015, two less than the year before.

2015年，欧盟仅提起了12起反倾销案，较前一年减少了2起。

Cliff Stevenson, an anti-dumping expert who publishes the report based on data filed with the WTO, said the surge in US cases was driven largely by the steel industry. The increase also represented the range of countries from China to Australia, the UK and the Netherlands against which US companies were willing to file anti-dumping complaints.

根据WTO的数据撰写该报告的反倾销专家克利夫•斯蒂文森(Cliff Stevenson)称，美国反倾销案件激增主要是因为钢铁行业。这一增长也表明，美国企业热衷提起反倾销诉讼的对象从中国一直延伸到澳大利亚、英国和荷兰等国。

Metals cases made up a record 46 per cent of the 233 anti-dumping actions brought worldwide in 2015, with the steel industry accounting for almost all of the metals complaints.

2015年，全球范围发起的233起反倾销案件中，针对金属行业的案件占比达创纪录的46%，几乎全部是针对钢铁行业的案件。

Anti-dumping cases were much easier to bring in the US than in the EU where companies first had to pass a public interest test.

在美国发起反倾销案件比在欧盟容易得多。在欧盟，企业必须先通过公众利益测试。

But Mr Stevenson said “this might reflect that the US is being bolder than the EU in protecting domestic steel producers”.

但是，斯蒂文森称“这或许反映出美国在保护本国钢铁制造商方面比欧盟更大胆”。

The US and European steel industries have accused China’s heavily subsidised sector of flooding the global market with steel, “dumping” it by selling below production costs and driving down international prices. The collapse in steel prices in recent years has caused the closure of mills across the world from Australia to the UK and parts of the US industrial heartland.

美国和欧洲钢铁行业指责中国受到高额补贴的钢铁部门向全球市场大量输出钢铁，以低于生产成本的价格“倾销”，拉低了国际价格。近年来钢铁价格暴跌已经造成从澳大利亚到英国、乃至美国部分工业中心的全球范围的工厂大量倒闭。

China denies any wrongdoing and says it is working to tackle problems of industrial overcapacity that have become more acute as its economy has slowed.

中国拒绝承认存在任何不当行为，并表示正在努力解决工业产能过剩的问题。随着中国经济增长放缓，该问题变得日益尖锐。

The issue has also hit Beijing’s efforts to secure market economy status in the WTO, which it claims it will be entitled to automatically on December’s 15th anniversary of it joining. If China obtains that status it could affect the ability of the US and others to bring anti-dumping cases, as it would remove their ability to use prices in third countries for comparison.

这一问题也打击了中国在WTO框架内获得市场经济地位的努力。中国声称，在其加入WTO满15周年的今年12月，应当自动获得市场经济地位。如果中国获得了该地位，那么这可能影响美国等国对中国发起反倾销案的能力，因为这将使他们不能用替代国的价格进行比价。

According to the new report, over the past 20 years India has been the leading user of anti-dumping cases, filing 767, or 15 per cent, of the 4,990 initiated between 1995 and 2015. The US accounted for 570 while the EU registered 480.

根据这份新报告，在过去20年里，印度是发起反倾销案最多的国家，在1995年至2015年间发起的4990件反倾销案中，印度发起了767件，占比为15%。同期，美国发起了570件，欧盟发起了480件。