In the dumps

A better answer would be to invite national antitrust authorities, who look into predatory pricing by domestic firms, to deal with foreigners too. That is how this matter is dealt with between Australia and New Zealand. A further improvement would be to write antitrust rules into world trade law. Competition policy may be on the agenda for next year’s trade summit, which could launch a new round of trade talks. Its remit could easily be widened to cover anti-dumping as well as other competition issues.

As of now, however, such a change looks unlikely. America seems wedded to anti-dumping, as does the European Commission. Both are encouraging hard-pressed domestic producers to seek protection, sometimes by filing repeat cases, often starting one up immediately after another has been turned down. Now other countries are retaliating with anti-dumping suits of their own against American and European firms. As the cases multiply, a mockery is made of multilateral efforts to tend off protection. In short, the echoes of the 1930s may yet reverberate. It is time for the world to dump anti-dumping.

The Economist

Notes

1. worse still are the hidden costs of anti-dumping - инверсия использована для усиления эффекта звучания фразы

2. to corner the market – добиться контроля над ценами (путем скупки товаров или ценных бумаг в огромных масштабах)

3. remit – here: agenda

4. wedded to smth – преданный, приверженный

Vocabulary

to dump – осуществлять демпинг: продавать товары по заниженным ценам; dumping – демпинг:1) продажа товаров по бросовым ценам, в том числе ниже себестоимости 2) продажа товаров за границей по ценам ниже, чем внутри страны; anti-dumping – антидемпинговые меры; anti-dumping duty – антидемпинговая пошлина: таможенный тариф, вводимый для борьбы с ввозом товаров по бросовой цене

to remove duties, tariffs, etc. – отменить пошлины, тарифы и т.п.

predatory pricing – “ грабительское “ ценообразование: незаконная практика вытеснения крупными компаниями с рынка небольших и более эффективных компаний путем временного существенного снижения цен на услуги или товары ниже издержек за счет прибыли по другим операциям (через некоторое время цены вновь поднимаются)

antitrust authorities – антитрестовские (антимонопольные) власти; antitrust rules – антитрестовские правила (законы): предназанчены для поощрения конкуренции и борьбы с монополистической деятельностью, ограничением нормальной рыночной конкуренции; to respect the rules – уважать правила (закон)

to retaliate – принять ответные меры, нанести ответный удар; retaliation – возмездие, ответный удар; retaliatory measures – ответные меры

Exercises

1. Explain in English the following:

it lurks beneath a veneer of respectability; dumping calculations are a sham; steel workers feel the pinch of slowing growth.

2. Recognize the special difficulties in the following; translate into Russian:

1) Duties are imposed only to bring prices back into line with what they should be.

2) In the very few cases anti-dumping is the wrong response.

3) They might drive domestic producers out of business and raise prices once they

сorner the market.

4) Such a change looks unlikely.

5) It relies on the unlikely ability of a single producer to dominate a world market.

Japan to Curb Chinese Farm Imports

LDP Risks Beijing’s Ire as Party Tries to Boost Rural Support

By Masayoshi Kanabayasi

Tokyo – Japan’s government, complicating a tense situation in North Asia, will slap emergency curbs on imports of Chinese agricultural products in a bid to shore up farm-lobby support ahead of a Japanese election.

The cabinet said it would protect Japanese farmers by placing restrictions on imports of Chinese-grown leeks, shiitake mushrooms and rushes used in making tatami, the traditional Japanese floor mats. The Finance Minister held out the possibility of a compromise, noting that a Japanese negotiator is heading to China before the curb takes effect April 23. Tokyo hopes to prod China into adopting “voluntary” export restraints, just as Washington in the past compelled Tokyo to curb Japanese auto exports to the U.S.

The goods targeted by Japan represent less than 1% of its imports from China by value, but the action could prove politically significant. It marks a setback to a broad move by Japan in recent years to begin practicing the free-trade line it has long preached by opening its markets to a wide variety of foreign goods. It also marks the first time Japan is invoking the World Trade Organization rules to restrict imports.

An official, who declined to be named, also tied Tokyo’s move to broader trade tension between the two Asian giants, including the recent spat over the quality of some Japanese car and computer imports.

Tokyo will invoke provisional import restraints on Chinese exports of leeks, mushrooms and rushes under the rules of the WTO, the global trade umpire. If Chinese imports of these goods exceed the average annual amount shipped over the past three years, Japan would impose duties on the three goods, ranging from 106% to 266%, to raise the Chinese products to Japanese price levels.

The Wall Street Journal Europe

LDP – the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan