TRADE DEFENCE INSTRUMENTS : ADDRESSING RETALIATION THREATS URGENT, SAYS DE GUCHT.

The European Parliament must give priority to finalising a regulation on the modernisation of the EU's trade defence instruments (TDIs), Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht told MEPs, on 7 November, as they have just over five months to pass the legislation before Parliament goes into recess in the run-up to the European elections in May 2014.

"The Commission's proposal to modernise trade defence instruments should be high on your list of priorities," De Gucht told the EU's legislators. "If we let this legislation lapse we may not have another opportunity for a long time again," he insisted. The last attempt by Peter Mandelson - De Gucht's predecessor - to update the EU's trade defence rules against unfair commercial practices by its international competitors in 2007 failed. Should the Commission's new proposal - COM(2013)019 - be adopted by both Parliament and the Council, it would be the first time in over 18 years that the EU's legislation is revised.

The proposal is still in its preparatory phase in Parliament. Members of the European Parliament's Committee on International Trade (INTA) are due to consider the draft report by rapporteur Christopher Fjellner (EPP, Sweden) on 27-28 November, with the INTA vote taking place in January 2014. Parliament's plenary vote is expected to take place in February 2014.

NEW RULES

In April 2012, the European Commission proposed to update the EU's existing rules and rights on the application of TDIs. These refer to anti-dumping measures, countervailing measures, safeguard measures and measures under...

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