Japan and 15 other member countries of the World Trade Organization unveiled a joint proposal Monday calling for new trade rules to prevent the United States and other major importing countries from "abusing" WTO antidumping measures.
The 16 countries have sought a review of WTO antidumping provisions in the current round of multilateral trade negotiations aimed at liberalizing global trade and setting uniform trade rules.
The joint proposal calls for improving the transparency, predictability and fairness of global antidumping rules, which allow importing countries to impose prohibitive tariffs in response to complaints from the struggling domestic industry that are found to have been harmed by imports sold at prices less than what they go for in their home markets.
The proposal also calls for measures to bar importing countries from carrying out intrusive investigations on exporting countries subjected to antidumping complaints.
Japan, nations in the European Union and other countries have in the past successfully challenged some U.S. antidumping tariffs through the WTO dispute-settlement process.