The Commission faced a setback today when it tabled a proposal to extend for another two years antiduming duties and a price undertaking on solar panels from China. The measures, introduced in 2013, divided member states and the solar industry, and increased political tensions with Beijing. After an expiry review …
Defensive trade policy
EU to extend trade defence measures against Chinese solar cells for two years
The EU is expected to renew antidumping measures and a ‘price undertaking’ in place since 2013 on solar panel cells from China on Thursday (26 January 2017). The move comes after a one-year expiry review of measures that had provoked significant frictions with China and divided the renewables industry in …
EU initiated record number of trade defence investigations in 2016
Freshly released trade defence statistics show that the EU Commission has launched a record number of new antidumping and anti-subsidy investigations in 2016. EU trade defence authorities launched 24 new cases, the highest number in many years: the Commission initiated 19 cases in 2012, and 14 only in 2015. At least …
Trade defence : Textile group flags uncertainty created by planned new rules – in brief
As the EU prepares to wrap up its trade defence reforms in the aftermath of China’s expected treatment as a market economy in antidumping cases, Euratex, the main European textile industry association has flagged a few risks taken by the Commission in its TDI overhaul. Euratex is generally sceptical …
COM review of antidumping duties on Argentina and Indonesia biodiesel part of broader web of legal disputes
The Commission announced it was undertaking a review of its antidumping measures applied to biodiesel imported from Indonesia and Argentina which have been in force since 2013. The move is only part of a wider web of legal disputes regarding these measures. The announcement states that the EU aims to comply with …
Comment: Is there a point to the ‘fatty alcohol’ WTO case?
Short observations by Iana Dreyer. The WTO dispute settlement body recently largely took sides with the EU in an obscure antidumping case on imports of alcohols derived from various oils, otherwise known as ‘fatty alcohols’. Indonesia initiated a WTO dispute panel in 2012 a few months after the …
MES: China’s WTO complaint on antidumping against EU targets the ‘basic regulation’
China’s complaint to the WTO’s dispute settlement body on Monday was released on Thursday (15 December 2016) ahead of a meeting in Geneva. The text attacks the EU’s so-called ‘basic regulation’ and the relevant articles that single out China for a different treatment than other WTO members for the …
Trade defence overhaul faces rough ride in Parliament amidst WTO pressure from China
The compromise agreement reached by member states on Tuesday morning (13 December 2016) over the three-year old EU regulatory proposal to overhaul its trade defence legislation has been sent back to the European Parliament after two years of deadlock. It is set to face a rough ride there. Meanwhile, with …
EU lifts deadlock over antidumping package
Thanks to the “tireless efforts of the Slovak Presidency”, as Europe’s trade commissioner Malmström put it, member states have finally broken a long-standing internal deadlock in the EU over an overhaul of trade defence instruments in order to be able to remove China from a list of ‘planned’ or ‘non market’ …
TDI: hopes for final compromise this week as market economy status deadline missed
EU member states have failed to reach a final compromise on the package of measures aimed at overhauling trade defence instrument legislation to accommodate for the planned end of the analogue country methodology currently applied to China. Member states had hoped to so by Sunday 11 December 2016, the expiry date, …
