Fourth AEGIS TDI Report on the EU's Trade Defence Instruments

Introduction and Executive Summary

The EU system to restore fair competition on the EU market needs a massive overhaul. This overhaul requires:

• an immediate re-allocation of resources within the European Commission to allow greater and more imaginative use of the existing tools on anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguards;

• more flexibility in the use of the existing TDI instruments to address low levels of duties, circumvention of measures, environmental and social costs, vertical and horizontal supply chain threats;

• the creation of new instruments to address overcapacities; and,

• a revision of the existing trade defence instruments.

EU manufacturing faces an existential threat. This is happening today. Revision of the trade instruments and the creation of new instruments must start today. But revision of the law takes time. Many EU manufacturing sectors do not have the luxury of time. Thus, the re-allocation of resources within the European Commission to allow more and faster investigations under the existing imperfect rules, and a change in the Commission’s practice to help in better enforcing the rules for the benefit of EU industries, is an immediate demand and need.

The WTO rules, on which the EU law is based, are out of date and not fit for purpose. They were designed and adopted more than 30 years ago in 1994. The trade world has changed. Immediate efforts must be taken to revise those WTO rules. The EU must be at the forefront of designing the necessary new rules and, in the meantime, implement the new approaches in EU law in anticipation of global negotiations.

The Fourth AEGIS Europe Report on the EU’s trade defence instruments focusses on the most important of the many issues raised in this introduction that will allow for more and faster investigations, higher levels of duties, better enforcement, overcapacities and supply chain investigations.

Read the full report here.