AEGIS Europe Letter to President von der Leyen on Trade Defence
/Dear President von der Leyen,
Dear Executive Vice-Presidents of the Commission
Dear Members of the College of Commissioners,
AEGIS Europe is an industry alliance that represents more than 30 European manufacturing associations and companies across entire industrial value chains, from metals and ceramics to transportation industries. Together, our members account for more than €500 billion in annual turnover and millions of direct and indirect jobs across the European Union. European manufacturing is under extreme pressure from state-controlled and export-driven economies, which subsidise enterprises, resulting in global overcapacities flooding world markets. While striving to maintain a competitive edge, European industries in many sectors can no longer endure unfair trade practices resulting from such overseas overcapacities.
As highlighted in the Draghi Report, Europe urgently needs a stronger industrial and trade strategy capable of preserving a competitive manufacturing base and ensuring a level playing field internationally. AEGIS Europe supports the EU’s existing Trade Defence Instruments, which remain essential but must be strengthened. European industries continue to face investigations that are too slow, measures that are too weak, and instruments that are insufficiently adapted to the scale and speed of distortions that evolve, and strategies to avoid EU measures.
AEGIS Europe calls, therefore, for faster and more effective trade defence procedures, as well as the urgent allocation of additional human resources in the trade defence services of DG Trade in order to enhance the speed, effectiveness, and enforcement capacity of investigations. At the same time, AEGIS Europe calls for the urgent establishment of a new EU instrument specifically designed to address overcapacities and their disruptive consequences for European industries and value chains.
This instrument should:
be available on demand to any industrial sector affected by loss of market share in the EU and export markets due to overcapacities and other trade distortions;
give competence to the Commission to act;
allow for a full value-chain approach, hence addressing the impact of unfair practices throughout industrial ecosystems and in anticipation of circumvention or shifts in production;
as overcapacities and distortions are not limited to one country alone, the instrument must be available for all countries;
rely on publicly available information and/or market intelligence analyses provided by the industry to trigger investigations
require respondent countries to demonstrate the absence of overcapacities.
The European Union cannot remain exposed to unfair competition while other global actors continue to deploy increasingly assertive industrial and trade policies. A stronger, more responsive, and more effective EU trade defence toolbox is essential to safeguarding European industry.
Sincerely, Inès Van Lierde Renaud Batier Co-Chairs AEGIS Europe