France and Italy Lead EU Push for Stronger, Faster Trade Defence Measures
EU Member States Call for Revamped Trade Defence Strategies
Background: Growing Concerns Over Cheap Imports
BRUSSELS, May 26 (Reuters) - France, Italy, Spain and two other EU countries are pushing for the European Union to revamp trade measures to defend itself more effectively against excessively cheap imports that threaten to destroy EU industries, with Chinese goods implicitly in mind.
The initiative, also backed by the Netherlands and Lithuania, comes before an internal European Commission debate on Friday on the EU's relations with China as the bloc seeks to address trade imbalances that have fuelled tensions with Beijing.
Position Paper Highlights
Critique of Current Measures
In a position paper seen by Reuters and dated May 22, the five EU members say current measures, which have focused on Chinese exports, suffer from long delays, narrow product scope and easy circumvention.
The paper refers to Indonesian stainless steel and U.S. biodiesel, but does not mention China. However, three-quarters of all ongoing EU anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations concern China.
Last year, the EU's goods trade deficit with Beijing widened to €360 billion ($418 billion), as its exports shrank by 6.6% and imports from China increased by about the same amount.
Upcoming EU Review and Potential Reforms
Planned Review of Trade Measures
EU TO REVIEW TRADE MEASURES THIS YEAR
The EU executive plans to review by the third quarter how to speed trade measures such as anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties and assess whether new measures, such as to target overcapacity, are needed.
Proposed Enhancements to Trade Defence Tools
Broader Scope and Stronger Safeguards
The paper says the Commission could broaden the scope of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations so they are not limited to very narrow product sets, and make greater use of safeguards, which can curb imports across entire sectors. The EU could also set higher thresholds on local content and added value in third countries through which products subject to duties are re-routed.
Company-Based Duties and Overcapacity Controls
The paper also says the EU could apply anti-subsidy duties to companies, rather than just to specific products from certain countries. Duties could then apply to all their exports to the EU and prevent companies from just moving production from one country to another to evade duties.
As a final proposal, the paper suggests the EU could set up a new instrument to limit over-reliance on single foreign countries for supplies. Commission Vice President Stephane Sejourne has previously said that the EU could make some diversification measures mandatory.
Additional Information
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(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Gus Trompiz)
