Secex Ordinance No. 237/2023 was published today (03/08/2023), which makes the assessment of public interest optional in the original investigation for the application of anti-dumping and countervailing measures.
The new ordinance revokes art. 5 of SECEX Ordinance No. 13/2020, which determined the obligation to carry out a public interest assessment in original investigation, and to extend and update for this type of trade defense process the one already established for end-of-period reviews.
Thus, as of 03/15/2023, the opening of the public interest assessment related to antidumping and countervailing duties will depend on an analysis to be carried out by the Department of Trade Remedies (Decom/Mdic), based on questionnaires submitted by interested parties in period accounted from the initiation of the investigation (same period applicable for the
submission of the importer’s questionnaires). Decom’s decision on opening the procedure must then be disclosed at the time when its preliminary conclusions on the trade remedy investigation will be published.
The rule still does not admit the opening of public interest assessment based exclusively on a request presented by a foreign producer or exporter, or any of its related parties.
In the context of the Brazilian trade remedy system, the trend is that the removal of the obligation to make public interest assessment based on original investigations will reduce the occurrence of this type of procedure, and reduce the workload of the trade remedy authority, especially with complete processes to be despite the inexistence of interested parties contrary to the trade remedy measure, or in which the elements of public interest do not have solid grounds. It is worth remembering that this rule applies to public interest assessment that may occur concurrently with dumping and subsidies investigations, and that requests for independent public interest assessment are only accepted in extraordinary cases.
