On Monday 16 April, the Council of Ministers of the EU adopted the final version of the new regulation on the trade defence instruments of the EU, which was born of the inter-institutional agreement in December 2017 (see EUROPE 11931), paving the way for its final adoption by the European Parliament in May.
The United Kingdom and Sweden voted against the text and Ireland abstained, in a vote by qualified majority.
The regulation modifies the current legal framework, which allows higher customs duties to be levied on dumped or subsidised imports, in order to improve the protection of EU producers from damage caused by unfair competition.
The new rules aim to ensure greater transparency and predictability for the imposition of provisional anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures. They set in place a pre-disclosure period of three weeks after the information is made public, during which time the provisional duties will not yet apply.
They also enable investigations to be launched without an official request from industry when there is a threat of retaliation by third countries and allow trade unions to submit complaints together with industry and to become interested parties in the proceedings.
They shorten the normal investigation period to period of seven months, with a maximum period of eight months. Definitive duties will have to be imposed within 14 months.
Higher anti-dumping duties may be imposed where there are raw material distortions and where these raw materials, including energy, count individually for more than 17% of this cost. This would make it possible to adapt the level of duty imposed under the 'lesser duty rule' if this is in the interests of the EU. The imposition of higher duties will include a target profit set at a minimum of 6%.
The new rules will also allow importers to be reimbursed of duties collected during an expiry review investigation in cases where trade defence measures are not upheld.
Finally, they take account of social and environmental standards when assessing the acceptability of an undertaking and when establishing the injury elimination margin.
The European Parliament is expected to adopt the new regulation at its plenary session of 2-3 May. The formal signature of the agreement is anticipated to take place in Strasbourg in late May, ahead of its publication in the Official Journal of the EU. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)