Brussels, 18/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission recently expressed great concern about the way in which the US State Department for Trade reached, on Friday last, the decision that exports of uranium from the EU come under dumping practices, and are subsidised. It mainly questions the methodology used by the Trade Department, insisting that the data and the arguments forwarded to it by the Union and the European industrial sector over the past six months were not truly taken into consideration. Some $500 million in Community exports are at stake as they could suffer from the imposition of duties. Pascal Lamy, European Competition Commissioner, declared on Tuesday that "the Union will now examine this decision closely and reserves itself the right to take the matter before the WTO if the dispute is not settled amicably".
On 27 December, the Trade Department opened an investigation into dumping and countervailing duties against imports of low enriched uranium from France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom following a complaint introduced by the United States Enrichment Company (USEC). Last Friday, it supported the complainant. This means that, if the International Trade Committee (ITC) of the United States endorses its conclusions in January, the Trade Depart could subject Community exports of low enriched uranium to duties equivalent to dumping and subsidy levels determined by the inquiry, namely 32.78% for France and 2.26% for the three other Member States. Being a question of Urenco (Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom), the Trade Department reached the following conclusions: the German, British and Dutch authorities mainly provided subsidies for research and development before the merger of the three production installations. It considers that the three companies that make up Urenco are an international consortium and combine the individual subsidy margins of each company. The Commission considers that the subsidy margin of 2.26% does not correspond to the reality, as the level of subsidies is negligible. As far as the French company, Eurodif, is concerned, the Trade Department considers that the acquisition at a high price of this company by EDF is a way to subsidise and establishes the subsidy margin at 13.21% and the dumping margin at 19.57%. French exports account for over half of the exports of uranium from the EU to the United States.
The Member States and the companies brought into question have fully cooperated with the US Trade Depart over the past few months. The Commission, for its part, has expressed doubt about the compatibility of this affair with WTO rules. It mainly considers that USEC, as a provider of enrichment services, is not the producer of low enriched uranium and is therefore not justified in appealing. The United States, however, refutes this argument, that it uses, however, in its own defence in many cases. The Commission also denounces the fact that USEC itself benefits from generous aid from the US government. In a press release, it deplores the fact that the Trade Department has once more shown proof of a very protectionist approach in trade policy, and recalls that just one week ago the ITC proposed imposing high duties on steel. It therefore proposes examining the compatibility of Trade Department conclusions with the rules of the WTO and reserves the right to "initiate any appropriate procedure".