Though there was a net fall in trade-restrictive measures, in accordance with a new report from the World Trade Organization, Group of Twenty nations introduced new 88 anti-dumping related queries between November 15, 2013, and May 15, 2014. The figure highlights an increase on the 76 anti-dumping investigations introduced between November 15, 2012, and May 15, 2013.
The increase in initiations in the second period is due to increased anti-dumping activity in Australia, Brazil, South Korea and the United States. The report also revealed that G-20 member states initiated 12 countervailing duty investigations in the second period, down from 17 in the first period. Only five G-20 members – Australia, Brazil, Canada, the European Union and the United States – were active, with the European Union significantly increasing the number of initiations, from one in the first period to five in the second. Brazil and Canada initiated no new investigations in the second period, compared with a combined total of six in the first period.
In general there has been a slight decline in new trade restrictions implemented by G-20 members. G-20 nations were put a total of 112 new trade-restrictive measures in place during the period between mid-November 2013 and mid-May 2014 and for the period between mid-May and mid-November 2013 the figure was 116. The report also notified that trade lifting measures has increased. The liberalizing measures now represent a larger share of all recorded measures (45%) than in the previous period (33%).
