Ground 4 - failure to follow procedures and the 2012 Ministerial Direction
136 Ground 4 of Yara's Application is that procedures that were required to be observed in connection with the making of the decision were not observed, within the meaning of s 5(1)(b) of the ADJR Act, and/or that the decision involved an improper exercise of power within the meaning of s 5(1)(e) and s 5(2)(b) of the ADJR Act. Yara contended, in short, that neither the Commission nor the Review Panel considered whether the injury that the Commission found had been caused by the dumped goods was greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business, as was required by the 2012 Ministerial Direction.
137 It may of course be accepted that the 2012 Ministerial Direction includes a statement that the injury "must also be greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business". That statement, however, must be considered in the context of the surrounding paragraphs of the Direction. The relevant paragraphs are as follows (with the statement relied on by Yara highlighted in bold):
I now direct you as follows in connection with carrying out or giving effect to your powers and duties under Part XVB of the Act.
My direction is to be construed as subject always to the law, including Part XVB. Consistently with section 269TA(2) my direction does not deal with the carrying out or the giving effect to your powers or duties in relation to a particular consignment of goods or to like goods to goods in a particular consignment but deals instead with the general principles for carrying out or giving effect to your powers. You must still have regard to the facts of the individual case. It is not enough to assert that because there is dumping or subsidisation injury automatically follows.
I direct that identification of material injury be based on facts and not on assertions unsupported by facts.
Consistent with Australia's international trade obligations under the World Trade Organization's Anti-Dumping Agreement and Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, I would expect it to be shown that the industry is suffering injury, and that the injury caused by dumping or subsidisation is material in degree. The injury must also be greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business.
Subject always to the law, I direct you to consider material injury to be injury that is not immaterial, insubstantial or insignificant. I direct that there is no threshold amount that is capable of general application. Rather, identifying material injury will depend upon the circumstances of each case and will differ from industry to industry and from time to time. A material injury assessment involves a range of factors that are considered together; no one or several of these factors can necessarily give decisive guidance.
In the past some uncertainty has arisen over establishing the requirements for material injury where other factors may be contributing to injury suffered by the industry. Injury caused by other factors must not be attributed to dumping or subsidisation. However, I direct that dumping or subsidisation need not be the sole cause of injury to the industry.
Whether dumping or subsidisation is the sole cause of injury or whether there are other contributing factors, I direct that the injury caused by dumping or subsidisation must be material in degree. This is consistent with Australia's international trade obligations under the World Trade Organization's Anti-Dumping Agreement and Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.
(Underlining in original, emphasis in bold added)
138 It can be seen that the text of the Direction contains a number of specific directions, denoted or preceded by the words "I direct", as well as some explanatory content. The statement that the injury "must also be greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business" would appear to be more of an explanatory statement, as opposed to a specific or express direction. It is certainly not immediately preceded by the words "I direct". More will be said about this later.
139 The passage of the Commission Report which Yara claimed exposed the Commissioner's error was the following passage (ADCR at section 9.7):
Yara submits that injury would need to be greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business and greater than the profit trend established over the injury analysis period. In order to establish the profit in the normal ebb and flow of business, in its submission, Yara duplicated the index of profit variations from the application, which shows a 12.5 per cent reduction in the applicants' aggregated profit from 2014 to 2017.
The Commission reiterates that the 'profit foregone', as estimated by the Commission in its assessment of material injury, isolates the injury caused by dumping in the examples outlined in section 9.2.1 of this chapter. As the assessment isolates the injury caused by dumping, the Commission is satisfied that the injury to the Australian industry is greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business.
(Footnotes omitted, emphasis in bold added)
140 Similar reasoning is to be found in the Commission's reinvestigation report. As noted earlier, the Review Panel requested that the Commissioner undertake a reinvestigation of, among other things, the finding that any injury caused by the dumping was material. The Commissioner's reinvestigation of that finding addressed, in particular, the calculation of the profit forgone as a result of the dumping. The Commissioner's findings in respect of the reassessment of the materiality of the injury included the following:
Having regard to both the profit forgone in the investigation period and post-investigation period, the Commission considers that the injury caused by the dumped goods is material to the Australian industry as a whole, given that the Australian industry applicants represent 78 per cent of the Australian industry's total production volume.
Further, the Commission found a causal relationship between the dumped goods and the injury to the Australian industry, and the profit forgone is directly attributable to the dumped imports. The price and volume injury found to have been caused by dumping in the seven examples outlined in section 9.2.1 of REP 473 is not injury that occurred within the normal ebb and flow of business.
Further, the Commission's assessment of material injury is not based on a coincidence analysis where trends are observed in variables over time and findings made based upon these relative trends. Therefore, the Commission found that the injury to the Australian industry caused by dumping is greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business.
The Commission considers that, in order to determine whether the profit forgone is material in the context of the Australian industry's profit and therefore material to the Australian industry as a whole, it is more appropriate to calculate the profit forgone as a percentage of the Australian industry applicants' aggregated profit.
(Footnote omitted, emphasis in bold added)
141 Grounds 4 and 5 of Yara's application to the Review Panel were that the injury was not material and was no greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business. In its submissions in support of those grounds, Yara challenged the Commissioner's findings in relation to the profit forgone which was solely attributable to dumping and contended that the Commissioner had not tested the materiality of the profit forgone by reference to the normal ebb and flow of business. The Review Panel rejected Yara's arguments in that regard. It reasoned as follows (ADRPR at [453]-[455]):
… The ADC was able to be satisfied that the injury was greater than likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business, arising from its finding that the profit forgone in respect of the seven examples was determined using a 'but for' analysis and was therefore solely attributable to dumping.
While the reasoning of the ADC is somewhat convoluted and may not be as clear as it could be, I do not consider it to be unreasonable in light of the particular circumstances of the ammonium nitrate market, as detailed above, and in light of the use of the counterfactual methodology for the quantification of the profits foregone [sic], to determine if the injury was material, which also resulted in the finding that the injury so quantified was solely attributable to dumping.
Therefore, I do not consider that it has been demonstrated that the ADC's finding that the injury caused by dumping was material and greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business, is not the correct or preferable decision.
(Emphasis in bold added)
142 It may be noted that the Review Panel's interpretation of the Commissioner's finding was that the Commissioner had found that the injury caused solely by dumping was both material and greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business.
143 Yara submitted that the Commissioner's reasoning in respect of the injury referable to the normal ebb and flow of business was erroneous and revealed that the Commissioner failed to follow the direction in the 2012 Ministerial Direction that the injury from the alleged dumping must be greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business. In Yara's submission, the Commissioner's reasoning reveals that, while the Commissioner's analysis isolated the injury caused by dumping from other causes, the Commissioner did not go on to determine whether the injury which was caused solely by dumping was greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business. Rather, the Commissioner appears to have simply reasoned that, because the injury it had isolated was caused solely by dumping, it must have been greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business. In Yara's submission, the Commissioner was required to first isolate the injury attributable to dumping from other causes, and then separately compare that injury with any injury likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business. It was on that basis that Yara contended that the Commission failed to observe procedures that it was required by law to follow, or otherwise improperly exercised its power in making the decision.
144 It is, with respect, somewhat difficult to understand some of the Commissioner's reasoning in respect of the issue of whether the injury caused by the dumping was greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business. Much the same can be said in respect of the Review Panel's reasoning in respect of this issue, which is rather ironic given that the Review Panel suggested that the Commissioner's reasoning was "somewhat convoluted and may not be as clear as it could be": ADRPR at [454]. It nevertheless cannot be accepted that either the Commissioner or the Review Panel failed to consider whether the injury caused by dumping was greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business and thereby failed to observe a procedure that they were required to observe, or otherwise improperly exercised its power in making the decision.
145 A fair reading of both the Commissioner's reasons and the Review Panel's reasons indicates that both expressly found that the injury found to have been caused by the relevant dumping was greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business. They arrived at that finding by adopting, or, in the case of the Review Panel, endorsing or approving, a "but for" analysis which isolated the injury to the Australian industry caused by the dumping in question from any injury that may have been caused by any other factors, including factors that may have caused injury in the normal ebb and flow of business. Both the Commissioner and the Review Panel reasoned, in effect, that the injury that was found to be solely attributable to dumping was necessarily, or by definition, injury that was separate to, or over and above, any injury that could have been considered to be merely the result or product of the normal ebb and flow of business. The injury caused by the dumping was, in that respect, greater than any injury caused by the normal ebb and flow of business.
146 There is nothing inherently wrong with the approach taken by the Commission to the question whether the injury caused by the dumping was greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business. The reasoning is somewhat convoluted and difficult to follow, but it could not be said to be illogical or irrational.
147 Yara's argument that the Commissioner's reasoning was erroneous effectively hinged on the contention that the Commission was required to take a two-stage quantitative analysis. First, the Commission was required to isolate the injury caused by dumping from other causes. Second, the Commission was required to compare the injury found to have been caused solely by the dumping with any injury caused by the normal ebb and flow of business, and thereby determine if the injury caused by dumping alone was greater than the injury caused by the normal ebb and flow of business. Yara contended that this two-stage analysis was required because s 269TAE(2A) of the Customs Act requires the injury caused by the dumping to be isolated from other causes, and that the 2012 Ministerial Direction separately requires that the injury caused by the dumping be greater than the injury caused by the normal ebb and flow of business.
148 The problem for Yara is that neither the relevant provisions of the Customs Act, nor the 2012 Ministerial Direction, mandates or compels any such two-stage quantitative analysis.
149 Subsection 269TAE(2A) of the Customs Act provides, rather self-evidently, that any injury to an Australian industry that was caused by a factor other than the alleged dumping cannot be attributed to the dumping. It is essentially concerned with the question of causation and involves a qualitative assessment of the injury that may have been suffered by an Australian industry. It effectively requires the Minister to disregard any injury that may have been caused to the industry by other factors. It does not itself necessarily require the quantification of the injury solely attributable to dumping.
150 The statement in the 2012 Ministerial Direction that injury must be "greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business" is directed to more quantitative considerations. As the surrounding sentences in the Direction make clear, the question to which that statement is directed is whether the injury caused by the dumping is "material in degree" and is not "immaterial, insubstantial or insignificant". There is, however, no "threshold amount that is capable of general application".
151 Even if s 269TAE(2A) must be read together with the statement in the Direction that the injury must be more than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business, that does not necessarily compel the two-stage quantitative analysis propounded by Yara. The combined operation of those provisions does not necessarily require the Minister to approach the question of the materiality of the injury caused by dumping by first quantifying the injury solely caused by the dumping, and then quantifying the injury likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business, before comparing the two figures to determine if the former is greater than the latter. The complexity of such an approach seems to be entirely at odds with what Lockhart J in Swan Portland Cement said was supposed to be a "practical exercise" (at 144).
152 The Commissioner did not, as contended by Yara, fail to determine whether the injury caused by the dumping was greater than the injury likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business. Rather, the Commissioner concluded that the injury caused by the dumping, in the form of reduced prices and profit forgone by the industry, was greater than the injury likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business. The Commissioner was able to arrive at that conclusion by calculating the profit forgone by the industry which was directly attributable to the dumping in question, and therefore necessarily excluded any loss of profitability which may have been attributable to the normal ebb and flow of business. That form of reasoning was not contrary to, or precluded by, the relevant provisions of the Customs Act or the 2012 Ministerial Direction.
153 There is an additional problem with Yara's contention that the Commissioner and the Review Panel, and ultimately the Minister, erred in not complying with the 2012 Ministerial Direction. The additional problem is that it is at best questionable whether the statement in the 2012 Ministerial Direction relied on by Yara is in fact a "direction" for the purposes of s 269TA of the Customs Act or, if it is, whether it is a lawful direction.
154 As noted earlier, the text of the 2012 Ministerial Direction includes some explanatory content along with a number of specific directions, generally denoted or preceded by the words "I direct". The statement that the "injury must also be greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business" would appear to be more of an explanatory statement. It is certainly not immediately preceded by the words "I direct". The immediately preceding sentence, which commences with the words "I would expect it to be shown", would also tend to suggest that the statement in question is merely explanatory rather than directive. So too, through contrast, do the sentences which immediately follow, which both again commence with the words "I direct".
155 It is true that the 2012 Ministerial Direction includes the more general statement: "I now direct you as follows in connection with carrying out or giving effect to your powers and duties under Part XVB of the Act". It does not follow, however, that everything said after that general statement constitutes a "direction" for the purposes of s 269TA of the Customs Act. The Direction plainly includes some content which could not be said to be "directions in connection with carrying out or giving effect to the Commissioner's powers and duties".
156 It is also doubtful that it would be lawful or permissible for the Minister to direct the Commissioner that injury caused by dumping can only be material, for the purposes of s 269TG(1) and (2) of the Customs Act, if the injury found to have been caused by the dumping meets a specific quantitative requirement of being greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business. The requirement in s 269TG(1) and (2) is that the injury caused to the Australian industry is "material". Other provisions, in particular s 269TAE, explain what constitutes a material injury and how a finding that injury is material can and cannot be made. It is those statutory provisions that must prevail. The Minister cannot, by giving a direction under s 269TA of the Customs Act, somehow alter, constrain or qualify those statutory provisions. It follows that the statement that the "injury must also be greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business" should be read as merely explaining or giving guidance as to how the Commissioner should generally approach the issue of materiality, as opposed to directing the Commissioner to apply a specific test or criterion.
157 That reading of the statement is supported by what was said by the Full Court (Black CJ, Neaves and von Doussa JJ) in ICI Australia Operations Pty Ltd v Fraser (1992) 34 FCR 564; [1992] FCA 128. The relevant legislative provisions that were in force at the time of the judgment in ICI Australia were relevantly similar to those currently in force, though recommendations to the Minister in respect of dumping duty notices under s 269TG were made by an authority known as the Anti-Dumping Authority (ADA) and the Minister's power to give the ADA directions was found in s 12 of the Dumping Duty Act, as it was at that time. The Minister's direction to the ADA at the time included the following (as set out at 577):
The Authority shall ensure that it recommends that anti-dumping ... action be taken only when dumping ... has caused, or is threatening, 'material' injury to the Australian industry producing like goods - that is, injury which is not immaterial, insubstantial or insignificant; injury which is greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business.
158 The Full Court said (at 577) as follows in relation to the operation and effect of the direction:
The ministerial direction binds the ADA in connection with carrying out or giving effect to its powers and duties under the ADA Act. The content of those powers and duties, however, falls to be determined on a consideration of the language of the Act. The ministerial direction cannot, and does not purport to, modify the Minister's power arising under s 269TG. The preconditions to the exercise of that power are to be found in s 269TG, not in the ministerial direction. …
(Emphasis added)
159 The Full Court went on at 577-578 to explain the meaning of "material injury" in the relevant provisions of the Customs Act in the following terms:
In the context of the legislation "material injury" is injury which is not immaterial, insubstantial or insignificant. In the practical application of that notion material injury will, in most though not necessarily in all cases, be injury which is greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business uninfluenced by dumping or other anti-competitive practices proscribed by the Customs Act.
Although a quantitative assessment is involved, it is essentially a practical exercise and material injury to an industry may be identified even though precise quantification of the injury is not possible. There can be no threshold figure or percentage that is capable of general application; what is material injury will depend upon the circumstances of each case and it will differ from industry to industry and from time to time.
(Emphasis added)
160 The same reasoning applies in respect of the relevant provisions of the Customs Act in their current form and to the operation and effect of the 2012 Ministerial Direction. It supports the proposition that the statement in the 2012 Ministerial Direction that the "injury must also be greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business" is merely explanatory, or provides guidance to, the Commissioner. It does not modify or supplant the relevant statutory provisions, or establish a criterion or specific test that must be applied by the Commissioner.
161 It is ultimately unnecessary to reach a concluded view as to whether or not the statement in the 2012 Ministerial Direction that the injury caused by dumping must be "greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business" constitutes a direction with which the Commissioner was, by reason of s 269TA of the Customs Act, required to comply. Nor is it necessary to reach a concluded view as to whether, as Yara effectively contended, that statement establishes a criterion or specific test that must be applied by the Commissioner in determining whether the injury was material. That is because, for the reasons already given, Yara has not, in any event, demonstrated that the Commissioner failed to consider or comply with the statement in question. The Commissioner concluded that the injury that it had found had been caused by the dumping in question was greater than that likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business in the sense that the injury was not one which had merely been caused by the normal ebb and flow of business. The injury was, in other words, over and above any injury likely to occur in the normal ebb and flow of business. The Commissioner was not required to engage in the two-stage quantitative assessment suggested by Yara.
162 Ground 4 of Yara's challenge to the Minister's decision must accordingly be rejected.