MEPs greenlight tougher anti-dumping rules

(STRASBOURG) – The European Parliament gave its green light Wednesday to start talks soon with national governments on new EU anti-dumping rules designed to give better protection to EU industry and jobs.

The new rules on the calculation of import duties are the EU’s response to controversy around China’s market economy status and to unfair trade practices from non-EU countries with a heavy state interference in the economy.

EU jobs and businesses have been under immense pressure as a result of China’s excess production capacity and subsidised economy, especially in the steel sector.

In May last year, MEPs urged the Commission to counter unfair competition from China in a way that complies with WTO rules.

The negotiating mandate approved by the EU Parliament includes the following key points:

• Anti-dumping investigations need to take into account the exporting country’s compliance with international labour, fiscal and environmental international standards, potential discriminatory measures against foreign investments, effective company law, property rights and the tax and bankruptcy regime,
• The EU Commission must issue a detailed report describing the specific situation in a certain country or sector for which the calculation of duties will be applied.
• There should be no additional burden of proof on EU companies in anti-dumping cases, on top of the current procedure to be followed when asking the Commission to launch an investigation.

With no objection during July’s Strasbourg plenary session, Parliament is now set to begin talks with EU ministers based on this mandate on Wednesday next week, 12 July.

The question of whether WTO members can treat China as a non-market economy and calculate anti-dumping measures accordingly was raised by the expiry in December 2016 of parts of China’s 2001 World Trade Organisation (WTO) accession protocol.

While the new rules would use the same methodology for all WTO members, regardless of whether they have market economy status, they will target countries where “significant market distortion” exists.

EU-China trade picture (by the Commission)

Further information, European Parliament

Protection from dumped and subsidised imports [EU Legislation in Progress]( January 2017)

EU anti-dumping rules: protection against unfair trade – Update of the article and context video on China’s market status

EP Study: New trade rules for China? Opportunities and threats for the EU (2016)