Commission plans anti-dumping onslaught

European industry is expecting the European Commission to end a de facto moratorium on anti-dumping action by initiating new investigations in the coming months in sectors including chemicals, minerals, textiles and metals.

At a meeting with national trade experts next week (26 July), the Commission is expected to float the possibility of imposing duties on cheap imports from Russia, China and Kazakhstan of ferro silicon, an alloy used in the production of carbon steels. Provisional measures would be imposed by a deadline of 27 September, with definitive measures expected by March 2008.

Cases involving textiles, chemicals used in the manufacture of perfume, graphite electrode and metals are expected to follow by the end of the year.

The shift in the Commission’s stance comes after ten industry associations wrote to Commission President José Manuel Barroso, accusing Peter Mandelson, the commissioner for trade, of having softened his stance on unfair dumping practices without consulting member states.

The dearth of anti-dumping cases in 2007 was cited by industry bodies as evidence of an unofficial change in policy. It followed a particularly active spell in 2006, when the Commission launched 36 trade defence measures to protect EU manufacturers against imports from countries such as China.

"The Commission has come under a lot of pressure," said Miriam Gonzalez, head of trade at law firm DLA Piper. "We have seen very few anti-dumping cases coming up. Some have criticised this as a signal that the Commission was looking at anti-dumping from a political rather than a legal and economic angle."

A Commission official denied that there had been a moratorium on dumping. Horst Krenzler, a special counsel at law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and a former director-general of external affairs at the Commission, pointed out that legal instruments could be employed to challenge any failure by the Commission to act.

A source working for one of the lobbies that sent the letter to Barroso, said that she would reserve judgement on the shift in policy until action was taken. "We’ll see how far it will go," she said. "It’s too early to evaluate how much has changed. Even if cases are initiated they can be closed. We haven’t experienced a real change of position yet."

Further action aimed at stemming the flow of cheap textile imports, expected at the end of this year, is already being dubbed a sequel to 2005’s ‘bra wars’, which saw around 80 million items of Chinese-made clothes blocked at European ports. In a controversial deal struck with the Commission, the Chinese government agreed to reduce exports of items such as trousers and bras to the EU over 2005-06, but further cause for action may be found this year.

European industry is expecting the European Commission to end a de facto moratorium on anti-dumping action by initiating new investigations in the coming months in sectors including chemicals, minerals, textiles and metals.