On Wednesday 11 April, the EU member state ambassadors (Coreper) adopted the definitive version of the draft new regulation on the EU's trade defence instruments, resulting from the inter-institutional agreement of 5 December 2017 (see EUROPE 11931), thus paving the way to a vote of adoption at ministers' level at the next Agriculture Council, in Luxembourg of Monday 16 April.
In a statement, the Netherlands said that it could give its support to the final agreement, but that it remained "very concerned" about the newly created possibility of imposing trade defence measures having to be applied by customs authorities on the continental shelf.
In international law, the continental shelf is the zone defined by Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the law of the sea of 1982, under which coastal states have sovereign rights on the exploitation of resources (especially in hydrocarbons) of the seabed and sub-soil.
The Netherlands wants to ensure that this point will only be implemented after modification of the EU legislation, so as to facilitate the enforcement and collection of duties, and after a modification of customs IT systems.
While they deem the final text to be "balanced and acceptable" overall, Malta and Denmark also expressed concern, in a joint statement, about the possibility of applying duties on the continental shelf.
This possibility, which is not provided for either in the initial proposal of the Commission or in the initial proposal of the Council, is a "disproportionate" solution compared with the problem to be resolved and it risks creating an unreasonable administrative burden for certain member states in terms of practical follow-up, monitoring, costs and execution by the customs authorities, they state.
Malta and Denmark thus advocate the establishment of a mechanism that is as little binding as possible, and they call on the Commission to state this point "as quickly as possible".
In addition, in another statement, Sweden says the new text will contribute to increasing the level of trade protection and will thus harm the competitiveness of EU industry.
According to EUROPE's sources, the UK and Sweden are not expected to vote against the text and Ireland is expected to abstain, during the qualified majority vote that is expected on Monday.
Once adopted by the Council of Ministers, the definitive text will be submitted to the European Parliament for adoption at the plenary session on 2-3 May. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)