European Commission to reform commercial defense instruments
From the three types of instruments used for commercial defense by the EU: anti-dumping measures, anti-subvention measures and safeguard measure, only the first two reform will be analyzed.
The reform's launching was in October 2011, from a unilateral decision by the European Commission that considered fundamental the modernization of the present defense instruments. On its side, the Spanish administration considers that the launching of this reform came in a inappropriate moment, according to information given in the "Informative Journey about the Modernization of Commercial Defense Instruments", organized by the General Sub-direction of Tariff Policy and Commercial Defense Instruments, by the State Secretary of Commerce, depending on the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, last 21 of June.
The Spanish administration considers that this is not the appropriate moment as the communitarian legislation is one of the most demanding within the WCO (World Commerce Organization) and one of the most adapted to changes originated by globalization.
It also considers the unilateral change to the Communitarian legislation to contribute to the raise in the present gap against the communitarian companies. Thirdly, the Spanish administration considers that in the present economic situation the need is for efficient instruments that defend adequately the European companies against disloyal practices. A position shared by FEPEX.
After a public consultation launched by the European, in October is expected that the results analysis is over and the legislation changes are clear in order for the European Commission to present a proposal of Regulation by the begin of 2013. If there's a consensus among all implied parts, the processing would be done by a co-decision procedure with the European Parliament and the new legislation could start mid 2015.
In the "Informative Journey on Modernization of Commercial Defense Instruments", where representatives from the different exporting sectors intervened, it was underlined that, presently, there are already too many differences between EU application of commercial defense instruments and how other commercial partners apply it. While the European Commission tends to not apply any commercial defense measure, Spanish exporting sectors find barriers to commerce in the majority of non-communitarian countries.
Source: Fepex