The EU has put in place 150 trade defence measures during 2020, 10 more than in 2019. This is according to the 39th annual report on the use of EU anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguard instruments in 2020, published on 30 August by the European Commission.
The countries most affected by these trade defence measures on imports in 2020 were China (99), Russia (9), India (7) and then the US (6).
In 2020, the European Commission particularly strengthened its action towards subsidies granted to third countries, i.e. aid provided by a country to a company located outside that country and exporting to the EU.
For example, the European Commission imposed anti-dumping duties against financial aid from China to a Chinese State-owned company based in Egypt, which exported fibreglass to Europe.
“We have continued to use our trade defence instruments effectively during the Covid-19 pandemic, improved their monitoring and enforcement, and tackled new ways of giving subsidies by third countries”, said EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis.
In the coming months, the EU plans to develop new tools to pursue this trade defence. The European Commission will publish a proposal against third country enforcement actions in October 2021. It also published in May its proposal for a regulation to combat foreign subsidies that distort competition in the internal market (see EUROPE 12713/1). Trilogues on the International Procurement Instrument are expected to resume soon, following the agreement reached in the EU Council in June (see EUROPE 12732/22).
See the European Commission’s report on EU trade defence: https://bit.ly/3gLgVEK (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)