Brussels, 07/12/2006 (Agence Europe) - In a reaction to last Wednesday's launch by the Commission of the public consultation on trade defence instruments (EUROPE 9322), the Eurocommerce association, which defends interests of European distributors and wholesalers, stated in a press release that the current system is “old-fashioned and overly politicised”, given the recent affair involving Chinese and Vietnamese shoes. It added that it “no longer lives up to the reality of a global business environment”. The association highlighted the need for antidumping instruments to be “rebalanced in order to better reconcile the interests of Community traders”. It called for transparency in the system to be bolstered in the trade defence system and pointed out that, “Many modern importers operate in twelve-month buying cycles”. Trade policy needs to give them the predictability and legal certainty necessary to calculate their costs and prices”. This appeal was followed by UNICE (the organisation representing business interests in Europe), which underlined the need for broader reflection and clear commitments in the WTO framework from emerging countries like China and India to respect basic rules on dumping and subsidies. Owing to the abusive use of trade defence instruments by some third countries, Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson acknowledged on Wednesday that it was more important to establish clear multilateral rules at the WTO rather than amend “our own rules”. He concluded that there was currently no consensus at Geneva to enable a shift on this issue. (eh)