US proposals on how to punish foreign steel and aluminium exporters for unfair trade practices miss the point and would do more harm than good, European Aluminium says. Global excess capacity – specifically in China – is the “root cause of the main challenges” that the aluminium industry faces …
Defensive trade policy
A week in Brussels: Mercosur, Brexit, Mozambique, Azerbaijan, TDI
It’s been an intense week in EU trade, with Brexit issues and disputes with Washington starting to dominate the picture. Here is what else happened. EU and Mercosur – still talking It’s been another tough week of haggling over the final terms of a long-sought free trade agreement …
China MES case may ride on negotiating history of WTO accession protocol
The negotiating history of China’s World Trade Organization accession protocol could play a central role in the outcome of Beijing’s WTO complaint about EU dumping methodologies, according to a new study that pinpoints weaknesses in the US and European interpretation of the controversial Article 15. Weihuan Zhou and Delei …
WTO set to determine Russian compliance with pork ruling
Insisting that it has complied with a World Trade Organization ruling faulting its ban on European pork imports, Russia has asked for consultations with the EU to discuss the matter. If the discussions fail to resolve the dispute – as they almost certainly will – Moscow’s next step would be …
EU could join Canada in WTO dispute over US tariffs – but it likely won’t
When Canada lodged its sweeping case against US tariffs at the World Trade Organization last month, it cited almost 200 examples of alleged wrongdoing against trading partners including Germany, Italy, China, Japan, Brazil and India. Despite talk of an EU-US ‘trade war’, and although the complaint was filed in a …
EU duties on Indonesian biodiesel break rules, WTO says
European tariffs on Indonesian biodiesel are illegal, the World Trade Organization said today in a ruling that contains the same basic findings as in a similar WTO complaint lodged by Argentina. But the panel went even further, faulting the EU’s profit calculations and finding serious defects with the bloc’s export-price …
Price comparability becomes key focus in China MES dispute at WTO
The legal arguments in Beijing’s World Trade Organization complaint challenging the EU’s refusal to treat China as a market economy in dumping probes should focus on the underlying ability of WTO members to ensure price comparability when dealing with economies where prices are distorted, the US and the EU argue. …
Week ahead in EU trade: TDI, Davos, WTO, Azerbaijan
It will be a busy week on the trade front this week, with the European Parliament’s trade committee set to vote on the reform on the EU’s trade-defence instruments and the World Economic Forum’s meeting in Davos, Switzerland – including a World Trade Organization ‘mini-ministerial’ on the sidelines of the …
Russia vows to fight EU demand for WTO sanctions in pig spat
Not surprisingly, Moscow has announced that it plans to fight efforts by the EU to slap 1.39 billion euros in trade sanctions on Russia for failing to lift a ban on European pork and pigs. If the EU convinces World Trade Organization judges that Russia continues to flout global trade …
EU, US aren’t acting in good faith on MES, China tells WTO
China tends to play its cards very close to its chest when it comes to World Trade Organization disputes. So Beijing’s decision to publish part of its oral statement to the WTO panel adjudicating its complaint about the EU’s refusal to treat China as a free economy underscores just how …