The European Union reopened an antidumping investigation into certain woven and/or stitched glass fiber fabrics from Egypt, the European Commission said Dec. 1. Following a request from glass fiber fabric producers association TECH-FAB Europe, the commission will look into whether "fabrics of woven and/or stitched continuous filament glass fibre rovings and/or yarns with or without other elements, excluding products which are impregnated or pre-impregnated (pre-preg) and excluding open mesh fabric with cells with a size of more than 1,8 mm in both length and width and weighing more than 35 g/m2" are still being dumped into the European market, or whether antidumping measures in effect on the subject merchandise have had "an effect on export prices, resale prices or subsequent selling prices in the Union." Currently, a definitive antidumping duty is imposed on certain woven and/or stitched gals fiber fabrics from China and Egypt, but a recent price decrease in subject Egyptian exports prompted TECH-FAB to request a reopening of the case.

World Trade Organization members heard two requests for dispute panels at the Nov. 29 meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body, the WTO said. The European Union sought a panel over Russian state-owned entities' procurement practices, and Costa Rica requested a panel over the Dominican Republic's antidumping duties on corrugated steel bars from Costa Rica.

The European Union initiated an antidumping investigation into imports of fatty acid from Indonesia, the European Commission said in a Nov. 30 notice. The inquiry -- following an October complaint from the Coalition Against Unfair Trade in Fatty Acid -- is looking specifically at "fatty acids saturated or unsaturated with a carbon chain length of C6, C8, C10, C12, C14, C16 or C18 with an iodine value below 105 g/100 g." The investigation covers the period from Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2021, and will be completed within 13-14 months from the date of publication of the notice, as is standard, the commission said.

The World Trade Organization published the agenda for the next meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body, set for Nov. 29. The agenda includes status reports by the U.S. on the implementation of recommendations adopted by the DSB on: antidumping measures on certain hot-rolled steel products from Japan; antidumping and countervailing measures on large residential washers from South Korea; certain methodologies and their application to antidumping proceedings involving China; and Section 110(5) of the U.S. Copyright Act. Other such status reports expected are from the European Union on measures affecting the approval and marketing of biotech products, and from Indonesia on horticultural products, animals and animal products. The EU is expected to make a statement about the implementation of DSB recommendations on the U.S.'s Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000; and the U.S., on the EU's measures affecting trade in large civil aircraft. Also, a long list of countries, excluding the U.S., made a proposal on appellate body appointments.

The United Kingdom exempted bicycle part imports from Frog Bikes Manufacturing Ltd. from the antidumping duty on bicycle parts from China, the Department for International Trade said. After Nov. 22, all bicycle parts imported by this company from China are exempt from the AD duty, with the additional Tariff Application Platform code to be cited as C499. The antidumping duty was carried over from the European Union following the U.K.'s exit from the bloc.

A World Trade Organization dispute panel found the U.S. violated WTO rules during investigations leading up to the imposition of countervailing duties on ripe olives from Spain. The panel found that the U.S. erred when finding that subsidies given to Spanish raw olive growers under the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy were specific to the olive growers, a finding that was inconsistent with measures in the WTO's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. The Court of International Trade independently came to the same conclusion. In June, the court said that the countervailing duties could not stand since they were not specific to Spanish olive growers (see 2106170075). The panel also said the Commerce Department's regulation permitting it to deem the full amount of subsidies taken in by raw olive growers to have passed through to the downstream producers lacks any real factual basis and is inconsistent with WTO rules. The panel did not find, however, that the antidumping duties on the same goods violated the trade body's rules. "The Commission's efforts to vigorously defend the interests and rights of EU producers, in this case growers of Spanish ripe olives, are now paying off," Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU's commissioner for trade, said. "The WTO has upheld our claims about anti-subsidy duties being unjustified and in violation of WTO rules. These duties severely hit Spanish olive producers, who saw their exports to the US fall dramatically as a result. We now expect the US to take the appropriate steps to implement the WTO ruling, so that exports of ripe olives from Spain to the US can resume under normal conditions.”

The European Union imposed definitive antidumping duties on three different products the week of Nov. 15, covering over $1 billion in "unfairly priced imports," the European Commission said. The measures were imposed on optical fiber cables from China, stainless steel cold-rolled flat products from India and Indonesia, and mono ethylene glycol from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. The duties on the fiber optic cables will apply to "imports of single mode optical fibre cables, made up of one or more individually sheathed fibres, with protective casing, whether or not containing electric conductors," and are 19.7% to 44%, the commission said in a Nov. 18 regulation. The duties on the flat-rolled products of stainless steel are 13.9% to 35.3% for exporters from India and 10.2% to 20.2% for exporters from Indonesia. "This sector is critically important to the EU because it is a high value added product, with EU consumption totalling almost €7 billion [nearly $8 billion]," the commission said. "The application of this product is very diversified, including the process equipment for handling the wide range of chemicals used by processing industries and in the energy sector, such as offshore plants and nuclear equipment." The AD measures of 3% to 60.1% on mono ethylene were imposed Nov. 15 (see 2111150018).

The European Union initiated an antidumping proceeding on imports of aluminum road wheels from Morocco, following an Oct. 4 complaint from the Association of European Wheel Manufacturers, the European Commission said. The commission will look into "aluminium road wheels of the motor vehicles of headings 8701 to 8705, whether or not with their accessories and whether or not fitted with tyres." Scope comments are due by Nov. 27. The investigation will cover the period Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2021. Comments on the complaint are due within 37 days of the publication of the notice.

The World Trade Organization and the Asian Development Bank, along with three other institutions, released a new report Nov. 16 looking into the state of global value chain resilience, finding that GVCs have shown to be resilient in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the WTO said Nov. 16. Identifying recent GVC trends, the report notes the increasing role of services and intellectual property and GVCs' importance in the global economic recovery.

The European Union imposed a definitive antidumping duty on mono ethylene glycol from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, in a Nov. 15 regulation, following up on provisional measures enacted in May. Preliminary AD rates on subject merchandise were applied in June (see 2106140015). The measures apply to mono ethylene glycol that falls under CN code ex 2905 31 00. The following rates for the U.S. apply: 3% for Lotte Chemical Louisiana LLC, 46.7% for MEGlobal Americas Inc., 10.3% for other cooperating companies listed in the notice's first Annex, and 60.1% for all other American companies. The Saudi Arabia 7.7% rate applies for Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Co., Yanbu National Petrochemical Co., Eastern Petrochemical Co., Saudi Yanbu Petrochemical Co., Arabian Petrochemical Co. and Jubail United Petrochemical Co.