Within the on-going "modernisation" process of the EU's trade defence instruments, started in October 2011, and after a first public consultation and a communication from the European Commission presented on 10 April, the Commission has issued a new public consultation, this time regarding the guidelines on which the trade protection measures established by the EU are based.
With this process, the European Commission aims to modernise the current trade defence instruments, whose main objective is to counteract the damage caused to European firms by illicit trade practices.
Of the EU's three types of trade defence instruments: antidumping measures, anti-subsidy measures and safeguard measures, only the first two will be reformed.
The new public consultation is based on the Communication presented by the Commission on 10 April, encompassing, on the one hand, a legislative proposal for the modification of the current antidumping and anti-subsidy regulations, and on the other hand, a series of guidelines about some key elements for this type of procedures.
The legislative proposal must be approved through codecision between the Council and the European Parliament in a process that could last between 15 and 18 months if an agreement is reached. As for the guidelines, they will be adopted without the need to receive approval from the Council or the Member States after the consultation finishes on 31 July.
For FEPEX, there are currently many differences between the ways the EU applies its trade defence instruments and how other trading partners apply them. While the European Commission, in general terms, tends not to take any protection measures, the fruit and vegetable exporting sector finds barriers to trade in the majority of non-European countries.
