Brussels, 05/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament advocates higher duties in order to punish social and environmental dumping from third countries, and it also supports a trade defence arsenal that is more accessible to SMEs.
On 5 February, the European Parliament adopted its proposals in plenary on the draft to adapt the EU's trade defence instruments - a draft that was tabled by the European Commission in April 2013 (see EUROPE 10824). The Parliament thus gave a mandate to its rapporteur Chrisofer Fjellner (EPP, Sweden) to negotiate with the Council. The objective is to adopt new rules on first reading before the end of the current parliament. Fjellner says the Parliament's position is “much more radical” than the Commission's draft.
As the culmination of its proposals; the Parliament advocates an amendment to the rules on trade defence so that the level of sanction applicable to dumped or subsidised imported goods might be defined according to the level of application by the exporting country of social and environmental standards - on the basis of international conventions on this. At the same time, the EU should apply more moderate duties, using the lesser duty rule, when subsidised or dumped products come from a less developed country that is pursuing its development objectives.
The Parliament also wants the revised trade arsenal to benefit SMEs more, as SMEs currently find it difficult to access anti-dumping investigations because of their complexity and cost. MEPS recommend setting up a help service for SMEs in order to help them lodge a complaint, meet the necessary thresholds for opening an investigation, and present evidence of dumping and damage caused by unfair imports. This help service could also be of benefit to economic sectors essentially composed of SMEs - with a view to gathering the necessary evidence for launching an investigation.
Lastly, MEPs advocate a quicker response to practices of unfair trade, calling for anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations to be limited to nine months (compared with 15 months in the initial proposal) and calling for provisional duties to be imposed six months after opening an investigation (compared with nine months in the initial proposal). In addition, the Parliament supports the Commission's proposal to commence investigations on its own initiative when there is a threat of retaliation (ex officio investigations). (EH/transl.fl)