The WTO’s appellate body said in its ruling that the EU isn’t complying with international commerce rules by imposing anti-dumping duties on the Chinese-made fasteners.
It said the 27-nation bloc isn’t calculating them fairly because it considers China to be a single exporter, rather than treating its companies individually.
It means the EU may have to adopt new regulations to lower its anti-dumping duties, but it will have broader impact still.
That is because the ruling says anti-dumping duties must now be set according to individual companies, not on country-wide basis, for China and other WTO-member nations such as Vietnam that are considered by the EU to lack free-market economies.
China and the European Union, its biggest trade partner, have been involved in their “fastener dispute” since 2009 when China asked the WTO to examine the EU’s charges on imports of Chinese steel fasteners.
China brought the case on behalf of more than 1,700 producers who have been selling the steel fasteners at 30 percent to 50 percent below European prices.
