MP Yuzhanina calls on Economy Ministry to expedite dumping probes

Member of Parliament Nina Yuzhanina has appealed to the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine to shorten the terms of consideration of complaints about dumping from businesses, as this corresponds to the practices of the European Union and will contribute to the protection of the national manufacturer.

"A match factory contacted me, because the ministry kept postponing the consideration, did not respond, and delayed the deadlines. They fought for two years themselves. During the process, I kept thinking why a person should fight for himself and look for a deputy who would find the time and time to do this. Therefore, excuse me, it means something is wrong," she said at the conference "Trade Wars: The Art of Protection", organized by the company "Ilyashev and Partners" in Kyiv on Tuesday.

According to Yuzhanina, during martial law, business cannot wait long for consideration of such applications.

She believes that shortening the terms of investigation of complaints from enterprises is technically possible and even without changes to the laws.

At the same time, Yuzhanina called for the Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade (ICIT), which considers complaints, to convene more often. In her opinion, it would be sufficient to hold a scheduled meeting once every three months.

Regarding the timing, Olena Omelchenko, head of the international trade practice of Ilyashev & Partners Law Firm, emphasized that a complaint is prepared for at least two months, after which it is submitted to the Ministry of Economy and, according to the law, must be considered within 30 days, but since the commission meetings are not regulated by any regulations, that is, there is no agenda, no plan, no schedule of the commission's work, the commission meets when necessary. It can be once every six months, or even once a year.

"That is, a complaint can lie for six months, after that an investigation takes place for a year and measures are applied, as a rule, 30 days after publication in the Government Courier newspaper. Here they take about two years. That is, in our realities of martial law, the realities for Ukrainian producers, when you say that measures can actually be taken in 1.5-2 years, they answer that they will not survive," Omelchenko said.

She also emphasized that in the EU several years ago the terms for investigating business complaints about dumping were reduced to nine months.

In turn, Deputy Director of the Department of Foreign Economic Affairs and Trade Protection Yuriy Kozlenko, commenting on the request of the People's Deputy, noted that often the delay in considering applications occurs due to incorrect or incomplete information provided by them, since the complaint must contain evidence of dumping, which requires information on the prices of goods sold on foreign markets, prices of goods sold in Ukraine, transportation prices, packaging. And in order to determine the fact of damage to national goods, it is necessary to know the entire financial and economic activity of the national producer.

"At the same time, a national producer is not a single enterprise in Ukraine. It should be a set of producers that make up more than 50% in Ukraine. The Ministry of Economy does not have the relevant data on these two main indicators in order to initiate (an investigation). That is, it is necessary to establish causal relationships, and this is a separate study," Kozlenko explained.

According to him, the Ministry of Economy, within the framework of these processes, complies with the legislation and provisions of the agreement with the World Trade Organization (WTO).

"Indeed, we have certain deadlines. As soon as we receive a request, sometimes when it does not contain evidence to initiate an investigation, we can send additional requests to the applicant. We have two options: we can refuse to initiate an investigation within 45 days and the applicant then has to collect new evidence, new periods, because the period should be as close as possible to the submission of applications," the deputy director of the department emphasized. He also suggested holding separate consultations with any enterprise or industry to explain how these procedures are carried out.