On Friday 27 January, the WTO’s dispute settlement panel partially agreed with the EU’s complaint about anti-dumping duty imposed by Russia on light utility vehicles (LUV or vans) imported from Germany and Italy (DS 479).
In its verdict, the WTO panel recognised that some aspects of the anti-dumping investigation carried out by Russia before it introduced the measures did not respect international trade rules.
By excluding various national producers from their calculations, the Russian authorities used unrealistic figures in their analysis of damage caused to the Russian LUV industry. When assessing the impact of the alleged dumping, the Russian authorities also neglected the overcapacity in the Russian LUV market which, at the time of investigation, was seven times what is actually sold on the Russian market, explains the European Commission in a press release.
The WTO panel recommends that Russia should take measures to comply with its duties under the WTO anti-dumping agreement and the GATT agreement of 1994.
Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said: ‘I am glad to see a very clear ruling by the WTO against one of the unfair, protectionist and anti-competitive measures that we see today in Russia (…). The duties on light commercial vehicles are not in line with commitments by Russia at the time it joined the WTO. Those measures now have to be removed (…) without delay.’
Russia introduced the anti-dumping duties in 2013, which range from 23% to 29.6% and affect exports of Italian and German vehicles.
Ruling that these measures do not comply with WTO rules and are damaging to European exports of LUV to Russia, the EU asked the WTO in September 2014 to set up a special dispute settlement panel (see EUROPE 11183).
The parties now have 60 days in which to lodge an appeal against the ruling, failing which Russia must comply with the verdict and remove its anti-dumping rights against vans from the EU.
The EU has sent three other trade disputes with Russia to the WTO – the Russian ban on imports of pigs and pork products, excessive Russian customs duty on imports of a number of EU products, such as paper and fridges, and a recycling levy for cars. In the first two cases, two specialist WTO panels decided in 2016 that Russia’s measures violated WTO rules (see EUROPE 11606). (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)