On Wednesday 11 July, the American International Trade Commission (ITC) confirmed the decision of the US Department of Commerce on 12 June to impose total anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duty of 34.75% on imports of black Spanish olives to the United States.
The European Commission immediately criticised these definitive measures, describing them as “unreasonably high” and “protectionist”.
“These duties target a high quality, successful and non-subsidised EU product”, exports of which to the US do not harm the American olive sector, a Commission spokesperson commented. The institution will now “carefully analyse the US authorities' decision (…) and consider all possible options in reaction to these measures”.
The European agricultural organisations and cooperative (Copa-Cogeca) immediately called on the Commission to “take action against this protectionist action”.
Imports of Spanish olives to the US have been hit by provisional duty of 21.6% since January, causing imports to fall by 42.4%, the organisation laments.
This drop was not compensated for by local production, but by an increase in imports from other suppliers, such as Morocco (33%), Egypt (50%), and Turkey (82%).
The European Council of 28 June called upon the EU to respond to all actions of a clearly protectionist nature, including those that call the Common Agriculture Policy into question. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)