Brussels, 18/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - The dispute settlement body in Geneva has confirmed that EU anti-dumping measures against Chinese steel fasteners do not comply with WTO rules. China has not missed the opportunity to welcome this verdict which, for once, rules in its favour.
In a report published on 15 July, the WTO dispute settlement body rules in China's favour in its complaint against EU anti-dumping measures against steel fasteners - screws, nuts and bolts - imported from China (DS 397) of between 26.5% and 85%, which had been in place since 2009, for a period of five years. In its conclusions, the dispute settlement body states that the EU was wrong to set in place antidumping taxes to all Chinese exports of steel fasteners, and that China, being not a market economy, should be set different antidumping measures for each of its enterprises concerned.
Although it is handing Beijing a major victory, the body nonetheless acknowledges the right of the EU not to reveal the name of the complainant companies, under the principle of confidentiality, in order not to jeopardise their business relationship with China.
A special group of the WTO dispute settlement body, which was asked to rule on the Chinese complaint, a highly technical issue on how the EU calculated the Chinese dumping then applied anti-dumping taxes, ruled against the anti-dumping measures of the EU, on 3 December. The EU and China both appealed to the WTO against the ruling in March.
The case is particularly important, as China is the world's largest producer of steel screws, nuts and bolts, and the EU is its largest market (by nearly €575 million).
The Chinese Ministry of Trade unsurprisingly welcomed this ruling, which it says will help it to improve the competition situation on the global market for Chinese businesses and to shore up the confidence of the WTO members in the multilateral trade system. (E.H./transl.fl)