European industry greeted today?s announcement of Commissioners that the EU will not grant China MES – and that the EU would apply a new non-standard methodology for dealing with anti-dumping calculations for imports from China – with cautious relief.
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At the same time, European industry expressed unease because there was no clear statement that the EU would continue to link its trade defense measures on imports from China to the EU’s 5 market economy criteria. These criteria apply to all other non-market economy WTO members, including China when it joined the WTO fifteen years ago.
“Without the 5 EU market economy criteria firmly in place as a legal reference, there is no way to apply a meaningful alternative anti dumping methodology under China’s WTO Accession Protocol,” stressed Milan Nitzschke, spokesperson for AEGIS Europe, a grouping of nearly 30 European manufacturing associations. “An unstable compromise would severely risk investment and jobs in the EU industry. It’s not only about steel but every sector manufacturing in Europe.”
A further concern is the extent to which the new rules would place an additional burden of proof on complainants, which would create a significant risk that EU industries, and particularly SME’s, would be handicapped in bringing forward complaints about dumping from China.
