Interview: EU's new anti-dumping rules to be WTO incompatible: international trade lawyer
                 Source: Xinhua | 2017-11-17 05:42:51 | Editor: huaxia

The European Union flags flutter in front of EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on Oct. 12, 2012. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the European Union on Friday. (Xinhua/Wu Wei)

BRUSSELS, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- The European Union's (EU) new anti-dumping rules, as it stands now, is believed to be WTO incompatible, an international trade lawyer has told Xinhua recently.

The European Parliament on Wednesday finalized its legislative procedure by approving amendments on EU's new anti-dumping rules.

The core of the new rules is using the "substantial market distortions," which is stated neither in the anti-dumping nor the anti-subsidy rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO), as a replacement of the "surrogate country approach."

The new rules came against a backdrop of the expiry in December 2016 of the Article 15 of the Protocol on China's accession to the WTO, which allowed the EU to regard China as a Non-Market Economy and use the "surrogate country approach" in its anti-dumping investigations against China.

"The new law does not virtually cease the so-called 'analogue country' methodology. Instead, it intends to continue in a disguised way the existing and currently applied 'non-market economy' approach towards countries like China, thus in violation of the EU's commitment of repealing such approach," said Bao Yongqing, senior associate at the Brussels office of the trade law firm Steptoe & Johnson LLP.

He said the criteria of establishing "significant market distortion" are not much different in substance from those existing in determining "non-market economy".

"One can easily find traces of 'non-market economy' standards in these new criteria," he said. "Some also believe that they are to a large extent tailored to address the economic and market structure in countries like China, Russia or Vietnam."

The new law, with "substantial market distortions" at the core, was passed by the European Parliamentary by 554 votes to 48 against, with 80 abstentions.

It still needs to be adopted by the Council of the European Union and is expected to enter into force before the end of the year.

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Interview: EU's new anti-dumping rules to be WTO incompatible: international trade lawyer

Source: Xinhua 2017-11-17 05:42:51

The European Union flags flutter in front of EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on Oct. 12, 2012. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the European Union on Friday. (Xinhua/Wu Wei)

BRUSSELS, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- The European Union's (EU) new anti-dumping rules, as it stands now, is believed to be WTO incompatible, an international trade lawyer has told Xinhua recently.

The European Parliament on Wednesday finalized its legislative procedure by approving amendments on EU's new anti-dumping rules.

The core of the new rules is using the "substantial market distortions," which is stated neither in the anti-dumping nor the anti-subsidy rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO), as a replacement of the "surrogate country approach."

The new rules came against a backdrop of the expiry in December 2016 of the Article 15 of the Protocol on China's accession to the WTO, which allowed the EU to regard China as a Non-Market Economy and use the "surrogate country approach" in its anti-dumping investigations against China.

"The new law does not virtually cease the so-called 'analogue country' methodology. Instead, it intends to continue in a disguised way the existing and currently applied 'non-market economy' approach towards countries like China, thus in violation of the EU's commitment of repealing such approach," said Bao Yongqing, senior associate at the Brussels office of the trade law firm Steptoe & Johnson LLP.

He said the criteria of establishing "significant market distortion" are not much different in substance from those existing in determining "non-market economy".

"One can easily find traces of 'non-market economy' standards in these new criteria," he said. "Some also believe that they are to a large extent tailored to address the economic and market structure in countries like China, Russia or Vietnam."

The new law, with "substantial market distortions" at the core, was passed by the European Parliamentary by 554 votes to 48 against, with 80 abstentions.

It still needs to be adopted by the Council of the European Union and is expected to enter into force before the end of the year.

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