The Future of Anti-dumping Rules in a Prospective China-Korea Free Trade Agreement - From an Analysis of Past Practice -

The future of anti-dumping regulation in the currently discussed China-Korea free trade agreement (FTA) is significant for anti-dumping regulation in the age of regionalism, due to both countries being frequent targets of anti-dumping, including with each other. Judging from China’s and Korea’s past FTAs with other members of the WTO,it seems unlikely that a prospective China-Korea FTA will eliminate anti-dumping as some readings of Article XXIV:8 call for. Analyzing the previous FTAs of China and Korea by dividing anti-dumping rules into three categories of WTO default, WTO rules and additional procedural or substantive rules, and abolition,these two states have never eliminated anti-dumping in a FTA unless there was no to minimal anti-dumping activity. Given the amount of anti-dumping activity between them, China and Korea are more likely to agree to “anti-dumping plus”regulation where the WTO Anti-dumping Agreement rules are incorporated into the text, with some procedural and perhaps substantive restrictions on anti-dumping.