The European Commission has acknowledged that the 2001 Protocol on China’s accession to the WTO authorizes the EU’s current NME method of calculating anti-dumping duties on imports from China only for 15 years, i.e., until 11 December 2016. The EU’s anti-dumping Regulation must now be amended, but it appears difficult politically to let go of rules that normally give rise to significantly higher dumping duties than the ‘standard’ WTO anti-dumping methodology. Based on its consultation documents, the Commission’s proposal to amend the Regulation, most recently promised by ‘end of 2016’, is expected to newly apply the standard methodology to China but only if accompanied by various ‘mitigating’ measures to lessen any negative impact. On-going WTO litigation on the flexibility of the standard methodology to redress unreasonably low producer/exporter prices resulting from Government interventions in the market may be crucial to political acceptance or not of the Commission’s proposal.
Global Trade and Customs Journal