EU may impose dumping duties on RI cotton
EU may impose dumping duties on RI cotton
BRUSSELS (Reuters): The European Union's executive body is
likely next week to propose definitive anti-dumping duties on
imports of unbleached cotton from five countries while sparing
Turkey, EU sources said on Friday.
The proposal, expected to be discussed by the Commission at
its Wednesday meeting, would seek definitive anti-dumping duties
against China, Egypt, India, Indonesia and Pakistan.
The issue is explosive within the 15-nation EU, setting
northern member states against southern cotton producers.
The European Commission in March imposed provisional anti-
dumping duties averaging 15 percent on unbleached cotton imports
from China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Turkey. The
provisional duties angered the targeted countries as well as a
number of EU member states.
Eight EU governments, including Britain and Germany, said in a
statement last week that the Commission had been wrong to
overrule the majority of EU states which did not want duties on
the cotton imports.
But, in a counter-declaration, Italy, France, Spain and
Portugal expressed their support for the Commission move.
Under EU anti-dumping rules, the Commission may of its own
accord impose provisional anti-dumping duties for six months on
goods it concludes are sold at unfairly low prices in the EU.
After that, the Commission may ask for definitive anti-dumping
duties for five years, but needs the approval of a majority of EU
member states.
In the cotton case, the Commission must decide whether to seek
definitive duties by Sept. 9, and EU ministers would have until
Oct. 9 to approve them or not.
The Commission's new proposal is likely to call for definitive
anti-dumping duties against the five countries while dropping
Turkey, EU sources said. The proposed duties would average less
than the 15 percent provisional duties.
The Commission would try to negotiate undertakings whereby
affected producers could avoid duties by agreeing to charge a
minimum price for exports to the EU.
The decision to spare Turkey follows a new Commission
investigation which found that Turkey accounts for less than 3
percent of EU imports of unbleached cotton.
EuroCommerce, representing European retailers and wholesalers,
condemned the proposed measures in a statement, saying they would
severely hurt the European finishing industry.
It said the measures would create "a complex system of managed
trade made up of a multitude of anti-dumping duties, minimum
prices and quantitative ceilings."
By exempting Turkey from anti-dumping duties and making the
other changes, the Commission may stand a better chance of
winning support from EU governments. But EU sources say it is
still on a "knife edge" whether member governments will support
the new proposal in October.
Only six member states backed the new proposal at a meeting of
the EU's advisory anti-dumping committee on Thursday, with
Belgium and Luxembourg abstaining, EU sources said.
EuroCommerce said Austria, current EU president, came out in
favor of the proposed measures. It said Austria was satisfied by
Turkey's exclusion from anti-dumping measures and by a more
lenient treatment of light fabrics used for embroidery.
Since a majority of member states is needed for the definitive
duties to go through, the outcome in October is seen as hinging
on the position of Belgium and Luxembourg.
The Commission previously adopted provisional anti-dumping
measures against the same six cotton-producing countries in
November 1996. But six months later it was effectively overruled
when EU ministers rejected its request for definitive anti-
dumping duties on a 9-6 vote.
European weavers have said that thousands of jobs were at risk
from cheap imports. The European textile industry countered that
thousands of jobs could also be jeopardized by the imposition of
dumping duties on its raw materials.