EU failed to comply after losing China screws dispute, WTO says

12/08/2015 12:00 - 572 Views

The European Union failed to make amends after losing a dispute brought to the World Trade Organization by China over EU anti-dumping duties on Chinese bolts and screws, a WTO dispute panel ruled on Friday.
China originally complained about the duties in 2009 and won its case in 2011. It went back to the WTO in 2013, complaining that the EU, which had only marginally reduced the duties, had not done enough to comply with the ruling against it.
The duties, applied because the EU claimed China was selling at unfairly low prices, originally ranged from 26.5 percent to 85 percent. After losing the WTO case in 2011, the EU said they had been reduced to a range of 22.9 percent to 74.1 percent.
Imports of iron and steel nuts, bolts and screws into the then 27 countries of the EU were worth almost $1.5 billion in 2007 and almost $1.9 billion in 2008.
The value of the trade plummeted to $650 million in 2009 and has remained below $1 billion every year since, according to data from the International Trade Centre, a U.N.-WTO joint venture.
Around 200 Chinese companies were affected by the tariffs, but the three-member WTO panel found that the EU had been wrong to apply its measures countrywide and not just to specific Chinese producers.

Aug 7, 2015
Source: Reuters