The EU order after 7 years is back! In the past two days, the first batch of fasteners sent to the EU market by Haiyan Haitang Standard Parts Factory began to be shipped one after another. After 7 years of transnational "tug-of-war", Chinese fastener companies finally fought back against the EU's high anti-dumping tax rate and returned to the EU market.
"We have worked hard for this moment for 7 years, and the victory did not come easily!" As one of the "hardcore enterprises" actively participating in the collective response, Fu Shengbo, general manager of Haitang, sighed. On February 27 this year, the European Commission decided to officially cancel the anti-dumping measures against Chinese steel fasteners. As soon as the announcement was released, the European "little partners" who have cooperated with Haitang for more than ten years immediately returned. Other fastener companies in Jiaxing have also "returned" to Europe one after another.
"This is a protracted cross-border lawsuit." Qian Yueping, secretary general of Jiaxing Fastener Association, said that in 2009, the EU began to levy anti-dumping duties of up to 85% on my country's fastener products, which directly affects China's Exports are nearly 1 billion US dollars. As the main involved area, Jiaxing's fastener industry suffered heavy losses. According to the data of the Municipal Bureau of Commerce, from 2008 to 2015, the export value of fasteners in the city to the EU dropped from US$332.88 million to US$154.28 million, a drop of 54%; the export value of the products involved in the case to the EU dropped from US$141.49 million to US$9.85 million , down 93%. Many companies were forced to withdraw from the EU market.
In the face of unfair anti-dumping duties, Chinese fastener companies represented by Jiaxing companies fought back and pushed the Ministry of Commerce to bring relevant EU legislation and anti-dumping measures to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. On July 15, 2011, the WTO ruled that China won the case, requiring the EU to complete the relevant legal amendments by the end of 2012. my country's first case against the EU in the WTO successfully won the first battle.
However, the EU only lowered the anti-dumping duty to 74.1% when implementing the ruling, and the fine-tuning of the tax rate was only a scratch, and the rest of the ruling was not enforced. In October 2013, the Chinese side launched the "enforcement lawsuit" again, and won the lawsuit again on January 18 this year.
"In addition to bringing substantial benefits to enterprises, the case also has significant institutional significance." Li Ye, a lawyer at AllBright (Beijing) Law Firm, who undertook the case, believes that this case is the first case in my country to challenge the EU's abuse of surrogate countries in the wto dispute. and won the case. This case has shaken the EU's long-standing anti-dumping legislation against China, and also changed the unreasonable practices in the EU's anti-dumping investigation practice, which will help Chinese enterprises to improve the effectiveness of responding to EU anti-dumping investigations.
"The fastener industry is big but not strong, but the entire industry can actively challenge, not back down or give up, it is really commendable!" Chen Fuli, deputy director of the Department of Treaty and Law of the Ministry of Commerce, said that in the China-EU fastener anti-dumping case, the Ministry of Commerce and local business The Jiaxing experience of the "four-body linkage" of the competent authorities, industry associations, and involved enterprises has become an effective experience for my country's commercial departments to deal with international trade frictions.
