Brussels, 05/12/2006 (Agence Europe) - After intensive interservice consultation, the Commission is to adopt, on Wednesday, a Green Paper that will be the point of departure for a broad 3-month public consultation on the Union's trade defence instruments. After the fashion of the importing economies, the Union has a whole arsenal of trade protection instruments - antidumping measures, anti-subsidy measures and safeguard measures - allowing it to defend its producers against imports in unfair conditions or subsidised imports and against major trade distortion that could be harmful to the European economy. With this Green Paper, the Commission does not question the fundamental value of trade defence instruments but hopes to set out guidelines for public debate on the best way to use this mechanism. In other terms, in order to keep public confidence, the Commission does not plan to undertake indepth reform of the Community trade defence mechanism but rather to consult the different parties involved to adjust its use to the constantly changing demands of the modern globalised economy. For the past ten years, the European economy and the world economy as a whole have experienced major structural changes. Today, there are many European companies that produce goods outside Union territory to export them back towards the Community market. There are many that have externalised certain stages in the production process or that operate in supply chains extending well beyond the Community market. These changes challenge our understanding of what Community production represents, on one hand, and of what Community interests are, on the other. Steering the debate, the Commission will therefore submit a document to the parties concerned, raising a series of questions based on six key themes for reflection: - the role of trade defence instruments in a changing global economy; - the launch and conduct of trade defence investigations; - the weighting of different EU interests in trade defence investigations; - the form, timing and duration of trade defence measures; - the transparency of trade defence investigations; and - the institutional structure of trade defence investigations. (eh)