The World Trade Organisation – of which Jamaica is a member, along with almost all of the trading nations in the world – prioritises free trade and investment within a stable and predictable environment regulated by principles of free and fair competition as a catalyst for economic development for all its member, regardless of size and geographic location.

However, as experience has taught us, free trade is not always fair trade. This is especially true for our small open economy with its vulnerabilities. Unregulated imports can contribute to economic disruptions and dislocations, a weakened manufacturing and producing sector (including agriculture), poor financial performance and a persistent trade deficit.  Thereby undermining the viability of Jamaican producers of goods that are the same or similar to those imported from foreign countries.

The Anti-dumping and Subsidies Commission was established in 1999 to help prevent Jamaica’s producers from being negatively affected by imports in the age of globalised free trade. Since its inception, the primary goal of the Commission has been to ensure equity in international trade by administering the trade remedies and procedures provided for in the WTO Agreements, which are available equally to all 164 member countries.

These measures are provided for in three separate agreements of the World Trade Organisation, namely the Agreements on Implementation of Article VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (commonly known as the Anti-Dumping Agreement); the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures; and the Agreement on Safeguards.

Jamaica is a signatory to all these agreements and, through the Commission, uses the measures of protection carved out in these agreements to defend its domestic industries against difficulty caused by under-priced imports, imports subsidised by governments of the offending country, as well as to counteract the damaging effects of sudden, sharp increases in import volumes of products, respectively.

While no one can claim that these mechanisms for protecting industries and business enterprises, in whichever WTO member state that applies, erases or even fully compensates for the unequal distribution of economic power in the world, measures such as these provide a means for countries like Jamaica to protect against the harsher realities of globalised trade, while still actively participating in its more beneficial aspects.

International trade is an irreversible reality. And, though we are smaller and more vulnerable than a great many of our counterparts, Jamaica still has a part to play in the global economy. For all its benefits and risks, international trade is a catalyst for economic growth, infrastructure development and higher standards of living, that needs to be carefully managed. Trade Remedies are one such way to equitably level the playing field among trading nations, while restricting the injurious effects of unfair international trading practices- especially in countries like Jamaica who would be unable to defend themselves otherwise.