The European Commission on May 14 extended its antidumping duties on birch plywood from Russia to cover goods from Kazakhstan and Turkey. The extension was made after an investigation showed that the duties were being circumvented by "imports transshipped from Russia" to Kazakhstan and Turkey, "or sent for final completion to these countries," before shipment to the EU. The commission said Russian birch plywood makers have been trying to find new ways to sell their goods since imports of birch plywood from Russia were banned after that country's invasion of Ukraine.
The European Commission on May 7 extended its antidumping and countervailing duties on cold-rolled stainless steel from Indonesia to cover Taiwan, Turkey and Vietnam, the Directorate-General for Trade announced. The commission said the extension of the measures is needed to "ensure the efficacy of the original measures on stainless steel from Indonesia."
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, along with French President Emmanuel Macron, met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Paris this week to discuss trade, Russia’s war against Ukraine and other topics, von der Leyen said in a statement.
The U.K. lowered the antidumping duty rate on exporter Hunan Jewelmoon Ceramics' entries of ceramic tableware and kitchenware to 17.9%, the Department for International Trade announced. The Trade Remedies Authority recommended the lower AD rate after finding that the company didn't export to the EU in the period of investigation, isn't related to another company subject to AD, and exported to the U.K. in the period after the EU period of the investigation. The new duty rate is effective Sept. 20, 2023.
German automakers don't want the EU to impose trade restrictions on Chinese electric vehicles, Hildegard Muller, president of the German Automotive Industry Association, told Beijing in a meeting with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao this week.
The World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body met on April 26 and was introduced to the new facilitator of the dispute settlement reform talks: Mauritius's Usha Dwarka-Canabady, the WTO announced. The chair of the DSB, Norway's Petter Olberg, said that Dwarka-Canabady accepted the role on April 18 after the "convenor" of the reform process left.
Japan opened an antidumping duty investigation on graphite electrodes from China, the ministries of Finance and Economy, Trade and Industry announced, according to an unofficial translation. The ministries decided to conduct the joint investigation following a petition from Japanese companies SEC Carbon, Tokai Carbon Co. and Nippon Carbon Co. The investigation will take one year and will allow for interested parties to comment on the proceeding.
A World Trade Organization dispute panel issued its report on Australia's dispute against Chinese antidumping and countervailing duties on Australian wine after the parties reached a mutually agreed solution to the case. Australia argued that China's AD/CVD violated numerous elements of both the Anti-Dumping Agreement and the Subsidies and Countervailing Measures Agreement. The parties told the dispute settlement body that they reached a settlement on March 29.
World Trade Organization members, during an April 11 Committee on Trade and Development meeting, reviewed developments in regional trade agreements and ways to increase developing nations' role in the global trading system, the WTO announced. The committee noted that developing nations face challenges to participating in international trade, including "dependence on commodity exports and higher trade costs." The members addressed policy spaces for developing nations to boost industrial development, including under the WTO's framework of the Agreements on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, Trade-Related Investment Measures and Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.
The European Commission on April 10 released an updated report on "significant state-induced distortions" in China's economy, the Directorate-General for Trade announced. The report will allow EU industry to "use the most up-to-date information on the Chinese economy and on specific circumstances of the market" when filing antidumping petitions.