EESC supports draft new anti-dumping methodology, but calls for improvements to be made to it

In an opinion adopted on Wednesday 29 March, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) supports the new draft anti-dumping calculation methodology presented at the end of 2016 by the European Commission, to settle the question of China's treatment in the EU's anti-dumping investigations now the provisions on this in China's accession protocol to the WTO have expired (see EUROPE 11664) – but argues that it needs improvement.

The opinion by Christian Bäumler (group II, workers, Germany) and Andrés Barceló Delgado (group I, employers, Spain) reaffirms the EESC's support for trade as a driving force behind growth and employment, but stresses its commitment to open and fair trade, calling for fair competition conditions between EU producers and exporters and those of third countries, and for effective trade defence instruments.

Overall, the EESC finds the draft tabled by the Commission to be well balanced between the question of a market economy status (MES) for China and the objective of creating a reliable method to calculate dumping.  It supports the proposal to calculate the dumping margin not by the standard method, but on the basis of benchmarks that take account of significantly distorted production and sale costs.

It reiterates that in its 2016 opinion on the need to ensure sustainable jobs and growth in the steel sector, it already recommended not using the standard method in anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations into imports from China until that country meets the EU's five market status criteria.

It welcomes the Commission's intention of using specific criteria to determine dumping margins for imports from countries with significant state intervention in the economy, but also calls for the non-respect of ILO standards and multilateral environmental agreements to be considered when evaluating significant market distortions.

However, it notes that there is room for improvement in the Commission's draft on modifying the base anti-dumping regulation on four points:

• it calls for the planned country reports to be obligatory for countries for which a substantial number of anti-dumping cases were observed before the new regulation entered into force;
• it wants the burden of proof to be clearly defined and not shifted to the EU industry or the Commission;
• it calls on the Commission to ensure the legal certainty of the proposed amendment to the anti-dumping regulation and to build a solid justification for the compatibility of the new system with the WTO anti-dumping rules;
• it calls for the anti-dumping complaints procedure to be more accessible for SMEs.

Finally, it stresses that the effectiveness of the new anti-dumping methodology is closely linked to the modernisation of the EU trade defence instruments, particularly the lesser duty rule, which was tabled by the Commission in 2013 and which is still the subject of trilogue negotiations between the Council of the EU and the European Parliament (see EUROPE 11751).

It therefore urges the EU to finalise and adopt this package in the coming months in order to create a robust and effective trade defence system.  (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)