Documents considered by the Committee on 7 November - European Scrutiny Committee Contents


13 EU anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguard activities

(34363)

15356/12

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COM(12) 599

Commission Report on the European Union's anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguard activities 2011.

Legal base
Document originated19 October 2012
Deposited in Parliament25 October 2012
DepartmentBusiness, Innovation and Skills
Basis of considerationEM of 1 November 2012
Previous Committee ReportNone
Discussion in CouncilNo date set
Committee's assessmentPolitically important
Committee's decisionCleared

Background

13.1 Dumping takes place when a product is exported to another country at less than its normal domestic price, and this causes a material injury to an industry in the importing country. In such circumstances, international law allows that country to take anti-dumping measures, and, in particular, Article VI of the 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) sets out detailed rules relating to the calculation of dumping; the procedures for initiating and pursuing an investigation (including the establishment and treatment of facts); the imposition of provisional measures; the imposition and collection of anti-dumping duties; and the duration and review of such measures. Similar procedures apply in the case of subsidised imports.

13.2 These provisions have been enshrined in EU law. In particular, Council Regulation (EC) No 1225/2009 allows the Commission to take provisional measures, with substantive steps being reserved to the Council. Because they are not inter-institutional documents, Commission Regulations are not depositable: and, whilst Commission proposals for Council Regulations are in principle depositable, the extensive background analysis they provide usually contains a great deal of commercially confidential information, and they are therefore not published, and hence subjected to Parliamentary scrutiny, until they have been agreed by the Council. Moreover, they are invariably cleared as not being of sufficient legal or political importance to warrant a substantive Report to the House.

13.3 In a normal Parliamentary session, about 30-35 such measures are considered, and typically involve extensions of existing measures; the definitive imposition of measures provisionally introduced by the Commission; steps to prevent measures applicable to one country being circumvented by products being routed via another country; and variations in the level of duty imposed to reflect either changes in the general situation in an exporting country or the circumstances of an individual exporter.

The current document

13.4 After noting that the EU had in force 117 anti-dumping and 10 anti-subsidy measures at the end of 2011, affecting 0.25% of total imports, the Commission says that, during the year, 21 new investigations were launched. In that same period, provisional duties were imposed in 10 proceedings, 13 cases were concluded with the imposition of definitive duties, 11 were concluded without measures, and 21 measures expired automatically following their five year duration.

13.5 The Commission says that review investigations accounted for a major part of its services concerned with Trade Defence Instruments, and involved a number of headings, as follows:

—  Expiry reviews

The Commission notes that measures expire after five years, unless an expiry review demonstrates that they should be maintained, and that eight expiry review investigations were initiated in 2011, another eight were concluded by confirming that the duty should be maintained for a further five years, and four were concluded by the termination of measures.

—  Interim reviews

The Regulation provides for measures to be reviewed during their period of validity, and the Commission says that, in 2011, nine interim reviews were initiated, and seven concluded with confirmation or amendment of the duty. Five interim reviews were concluded with the termination of the measure.

—  "Other" interim reviews

The Commission says that two other reviews, arising from actions following court judgements, World Trade Organization dispute settlement proceedings, and the need to clarify the scope of the measures, were initiated or concluded, in 2011.

—  New exporter reviews

The Regulation allows reviews to establish an individual dumping margin or countervailing duty for those undertakings which did not export during the investigation period, and, where an exporter can establish than it started to export to the EU after that period, it is generally entitled to a duty lower that the country-wide duty. The Commission says that two new exporter reviews were initiated in 2011.

—  Absorption investigations

Where it appears that, following an investigation and prior to or following the imposition of measures, export prices have decreased or there has been no or insufficient movement in the resale prices or subsequent selling prices of the imported product in the EU, an "absorption" review may be opened to examine whether the measure has had effects on those prices, and that dumping margins may be recalculated and the duty increased. However, it says that there were no such reviews in 2011.

—  Circumvention investigations

The Commission says that the Regulation allows investigations to be re-opened if there is evidence to show that measures are being circumvented, and that three such investigations were initiated in 2011, four were concluded with an extension of duty and two were concluded without such an extension.

—  Safeguard investigations

The Commission says that no such investigation was initiated in 2011, and that one initiated in 2010 was terminated without the imposition of measures.

13.6 The Commission also mentions the review it has been undertaking of the EU's current system of Trade Defence Instruments, and says that any proposal will not be adopted before November-December 2012.

The Government's view

13.7 In his Explanatory Memorandum of 1 November 2012, the Minister of State for Trade and Investment at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint) says that the document relates primarily to the decisions taken by the EU or measures in place against third countries, and has no policy or financial implications.

Conclusion

13.8 Although this is a purely factual report, we regard the Commission's anti-dumping activities as being of some importance. Consequently, although we are content to clear the document, we are drawing it to the attention of the House.




 
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© Parliamentary copyright 2012
Prepared 16 November 2012