{"text":[[{"start":5.48,"text":"US manufacturer Caterpillar has launched a legal challenge against the UK’s trade watchdog over its decision to slap tariffs on diggers imported from China, in a landmark test of post-Brexit enforcement powers."}],[{"start":20.36,"text":"Caterpillar, the world’s largest maker of construction equipment, is fighting to overturn an 18.81 per cent anti-dumping duty that the UK’s Trade Remedies Authority has imposed on its China-built excavators."}],[{"start":32.6,"text":"Lawyers for the US-listed company said in a filing that the duty assessed by the UK’s post-Brexit trade authority was “so high that Caterpillar no longer exports [the product] from China to the UK”."}],[{"start":45,"text":"The TRA hit Caterpillar and other Chinese exporters with the duties last year after British equipment maker JCB complained that excavators from China were being sold to the UK at unrealistically low prices."}],[{"start":58.32,"text":"Trade lawyers said the case, being heard in London this week by Mr Justice Richards, was the first court challenge of its kind over “anti-dumping” tariffs since the UK’s departure from the EU."}],[{"start":69.2,"text":"James Casey, London-based counsel at French law firm Gide, who is not involved in the case, said it was the “first substantive dispute on how anti-dumping duties are calculated post-Brexit”."}],[{"start":79.68,"text":"“It’s an important step in the development of the UK’s own body of case law on the correct methodology for UK anti-dumping investigations,” Casey added."}],[{"start":89.94,"text":"After JCB complained about cheap imports, the TRA investigated and concluded that diggers manufactured in China were entering the UK market at unfairly depressed prices, citing state-subsidised materials, such as cheap steel."}],[{"start":104.28,"text":"The investigation concerned midsized and heavy-duty excavators, widely used on commercial construction sites."}],[{"start":109.56,"text":"The watchdog’s 18.81 per cent duty is in force for five years."}],[{"start":115.6,"text":"Caterpillar contends that the TRA applied flawed logic when it imposed the duty."}],[{"start":120.24,"text":"Tristan Jones KC, a barrister representing Caterpillar, said “something has gone seriously wrong” with the TRA’s analysis, as its UK export prices for the excavators in fact were higher than domestic prices in China."}],[{"start":133.12,"text":"“By dramatically inflating Caterpillar’s costs and profits beyond anything actually paid or earned in China, the TRA treated a company charging premium prices for export to the UK as though it was dumping,” he said in a written submission."}],[{"start":147.12,"text":"But Philip Moser KC, for the TRA, said none of Caterpillar’s grounds for challenging the decision had “any merit”."}],[{"start":154.04,"text":"The barrister added in a written submission: “If steel or electricity prices are artificially low as a result of non-commercial factors (for example, due to government subsidies), that gives rise to a PMS [particular market situation] that will apply across the market.”"}],[{"start":170.12,"text":"Caterpillar’s case, which has been brought by a Xuzhou subsidiary of the US-listed company, comes after a skirmish last year when the High Court in London dismissed a judicial review claim it brought against the TRA."}],[{"start":181.44,"text":"In the earlier case, Caterpillar argued officials had failed to give adequate notice when they launched an investigation, whereas in the case this week the company is challenging the calculation of the final tariff itself."}],[{"start":197.84,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1793089650_4785.mp3"}