CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA (Dec. 21, 11:25 a.m. ET) -- Australia’s federal government will establish an Anti-Dumping Commission and introduce stricter remedies against overseas producers in a bid to protect Australia’s manufacturing industry.
The changes will be a major boost for Australia’s plastics industry, which relies heavily on anti-dumping measures.
In the last 12 months, the Canberra-based Australian Customs and Border Protection Service launched an investigation into dumping of PVC homopolymer resin exported from South Korea. It also reviewed anti-dumping measures on Japanese and U.S. PVC exports.
In a statement, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said the government will boost ACBPS funding by A$24.4 million over four years, which will almost double the number of investigators. The government also plans to impose stricter rules against overseas producers that deliberately avoid anti-dumping rules.
It will introduce legislation in 2013 to establish the Melbourne-based Anti-Dumping Commission to investigate complaints and report directly to the federal home affairs minister.
Gillard said the manufacturing sector, which employs nearly 1 million Australians, faces challenges from the high Australian dollar, Europe’s economic weakness, intense global competition, and an oversupply of some traded goods in international markets.
A key concern is a significant increase in dumping. “It is neither economically efficient nor fair for competitive Australian businesses to be disadvantaged by products dumped into our market,” she said.
Plastics News sought comment from the Melbourne-based Plastics and Chemical Industries Association, but the group’s spokeswoman did not respond.