Brussels, 27/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - The WTO has ruled against the anti-dumping duties imposed by China on its imports of X-ray scanners from the EU since 2011.
A first. For the first time, the EU has challenged a Chinese trade defence measure before a special WTO panel and it has been proved right. On Tuesday 26 February, the WTO indeed confirmed the illegality of the anti-dumping duties imposed by China - duties which range from 33.5% to 71.8% and which have hit X-ray scanners from the EU since January 2011. Not having found any substantive or procedural reason that justified the anti-dumping measures - which were set up in retaliation for the EU's anti-dumping duties applied to imports of cargo scanners from China - the European Commission called in July 2011 for the opening of consultations at the WTO. The consultations did not bring about an acceptable solution. The EU was not deterred, however, and in December 2011 called for a special panel to be set up to decide on the EU's complaint (DS 425). On Tuesday, the panel noted that the anti-dumping duties put in place by China on X-ray security scanners from the EU were in breach of WTO anti-dumping rules (which only allow anti-dumping duties to be established under strict conditions in order to deal with cases where exports sold at a price below the real value cause damage to the domestic market of the importing country - in other words, injurious dumping, the WTO explains in its verdict).
Systemic importance. The special panel's report can be contested before the WTO appellate body within 60 days of its publication. If no appeal is filed within this deadline, the report will be adopted and China will be bound to respect the recommendation to bring its measures into line with WTO rules. “Today's WTO ruling clearly confirms that countries using trade defence measures have to play by the rules. I will not accept tit-for-tat retaliation against European companies through the misuse of trade defence instruments. The panel report is very clear, so I expect China to remove the measures immediately”, commented European Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht. The WTO's verdict on this file has systemic importance for the EU because it highlights the recurrent shortcomings identified during trade defence investigations carried out in China. “The report sends a strong signal that, while WTO members have the right to use their trade defence instruments, this right cannot be abused and must be exercised in line with WTO rules”, the Commission states in a press release. China is warning that it will carry out a serious assessment of this verdict and reserves the right to appeal. (EH/transl.fl)