On May 26, 2006 Mexico requested consultations with the United States about a number of final anti-dumping judgments made by the US Department of Commerce.
The judgments concerned the imports of stainless steel sheets and strips from Mexico, which were supposedly illegal dumping through the use of a "Zeroing" technique by the US Department of Commerce.
[1] Mexico believed that some of the laws, regulations, administrative practices and methodologies implemented by the US impaired and nullified the benefits added to Mexico, directly or indirectly, under the World Trade Organization Agreement on Customs Valuation, and that the anti-dumping laws were unwarranted.
This led to a panel being established in December 2006, the proceedings of which continued until May 2013, with a mutually agreeable solution being reached.
The consultations concerned:[2] Mexico believed that these laws and practices violated their rights under the World Trade Organization agreement and argued that no dumping was taking place.
On the other hand, it also concluded that Simple Zeroing in periodic review was not inconsistent with the Anti Dumping Agreement.
For the purposes of resolving the dispute, the panel also found it unnecessary to make an additional finding on Mexico's claim that Simple Zeroing in periodic review (as applied to the five periodic reviews at issue in the dispute) was inconsistent with the Anti-Dumping Laws.