The Australian reported that the politics is transparently obvious, but Opposition Leader Mr Tony Abbott should be wary of trashing the very people he claims to be helping. The venture into the arcane world of dumping policy is a minefield for any politician wanting to champion his or her blue collar sympathies.
Mr Abbott pinched Mr Nick Xenophon's ideas about reversing the onus of proof on dumping claims to show he cared about workers.
A case in point is the Australian Tube Mills plant in Acacia, near Brisbane, which has a dumping complaint against steel pipe imports from China, Malaysia, Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. The plant employs about 230 people and the action it is taking threatens to raise costs and jeopardize some 40,000 workers who rely on steel pipe imports from the countries in question.
ATM has a strategic relationship with Japanese producer Maruichi and Sunsco in Vietnam. Its parent company, OneSteel, is presently reviewing its steel operations and an official declined comment pending an update at the company's AGM in a couple of weeks.
ATM imports steel pipes from its comrades in Japan and Vietnam, which are just two countries that didn’t make its hit list. The talk in the industry says OneSteel has KPMG doing due diligence on the possible sale of ATM.
There is also talk suggesting it is moving its galvanizing line to Vietnam, which all of a sudden makes ATM a more cost effective producer but hardly an Australian manufacturer. If so, the obvious question is just what is it trying to protect by taking the dumping action.
Dumping is proved when the exports are below the cost of production and normal values in the country of origin and is hurting Australian industry. If proved it results in a duty imposed to restore normal values.
This raises the costs for importers who, more often than not, are manufacturers relying on imports for part of their processes. Then, there is the issue of reversing the onus of proof to demand the importers prove the goods are not dumped, which is both contrary to world trade rules and commercially naive.
(Source from www.theaustralian.com.au)
