Trade Defence Instruments
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement contains three principal trade defence instruments. These are the anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguard instruments.
European Commission consultation on modernisation of Trade Defence Instruments
While the economic environment has changed significantly over the last decade, the rules of the EU's Trade Defence Instruments have remained largely unchanged for more than 15 years.
The Public Consultation on Modernisation of Trade Defence Instruments is open to all stakeholders. The deadline for answering its questionnaire is 3 July 2012.
Trade Defence Instruments
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement contains three principal trade defence instruments. These are the anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguard instruments.
Anti-dumping is designed to allow countries to take action against dumped imports that cause or threaten to cause material injury to the domestic industry. Goods are said to be dumped when they are sold for export at less than their normal value. The normal value is usually defined as the price for the like goods in the exporter’s home market.
Anti-subsidy measures allow importing countries to take action against certain kinds of subsidised imports. Broadly speaking, "subsidies" are defined as financial assistance from a government to a company or group of companies. Some types of subsidy (e.g. export subsidies) are prohibited under the WTO Agreement; others are "actionable", which means that an importing country has to demonstrate that the subsidised imports have caused damage to the domestic industry of the importing country.
Safeguards. The rationale behind both anti-dumping and anti-subsidy is that countries are entitled to take action in cases of unfair foreign competition. Safeguards carry no such accusation that the competition is unfair. Safeguards are designed to protect countries from unforeseen surges in imports that cause or threaten to cause serious injury to the domestic industry.
