Article By Ertuğrul Can Canbolat

The Ministry to Go Unorthodox for Calculating the Dumping Margins: Vulcanised Rubber Thread and Cord

Authors: Ertuğrul Can Canbolat

Lexology, 29.11.2024

Introduction

In July 2024, the Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Trade (“Ministry”) Directorate General for Imports (“Directorate General”) had announced its Final Disclosure Report1 (the “First Final Disclosure”) regarding the investigation carried out concerning the imports of the product vulcanised rubber thread and cord (“concerned product”) originating in the Republic of India (“India”). The Directorate General surprisingly published a further Final Disclosure Report2 (the “Revised Final Disclosure”) in September 2024, according to which a different approach was adopted for the dumping margin calculation.

This Revised Final Disclosure could result in a decision of an utterly exceptional nature since it diverges from most of the previous decisions with respect to dumping margin calculations and can also affect the dumping margin analyses of the Ministry to be done during incoming investigations, particularly those relating to cases with export price fluctuations among regions, purchasers or time periods. This article aims to provide an overview of this exceptional decision from a critical standpoint.

The Investigation and The Final Disclosures

The investigation was initiated following an application submitted by the Domestic Industry, which is composed of Elpa as the applicant and Şahin Lateks Sanayi ve Tic. A.Ş. (“Şahin”) as the supporter. The investigation period (“IP”) was determined as the period between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023, while the injury review period was determined as between 1 January 2020 31 March 2023. Located in India, Rubfila International Limited (“Rubfila”), producer/exporter of the concerned product, as well as the two importers of the concerned product into Türkiye, have provided the Ministry with their responses to the questionnaire. Therefore, the dumping determinations concerning Rubfila have been made based on the data provided by it, the only cooperating company located in India.

1 https://ticaret.gov.tr/data/6501977713b8769d98616a1c/Nihai%20Bildirim.pdf.

2 https://ticaret.gov.tr/data/6501977713b8769d98616a1c/Nihai%20Bildirim_Revize.pdf.