Call for evidence outcome

Provisional findings of the call for evidence into UK interest in existing EU trade remedy measures

Updated 2 May 2019

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government

Action

1. We invite you to review the provisional findings of the call for evidence into UK interest in existing EU trade remedy measures, and to provide any further relevant information to traderemedies@trade.gov.uk by 24 August. This includes providing an application to maintain measures, if you are a producer of a product covered by measures and did not do so before now.

Introduction

2. The Department for International Trade (DIT) is preparing a UK trade remedies framework in readiness for the UK operating its own independent trade policy. We are publishing this call for evidence to prepare for a range of different scenarios, including a time-limited implementation period (further detail is set out below), and subject to the negotiations with the EU on our future relationship.

3. In support of this, the department ran a call for evidence from 28 November 2017 to 30 March 2018. It aimed to identify which UK businesses produce, in the UK, goods currently subject to EU anti-dumping or anti-subsidy measures.

4. We did this in order to identify which measures the UK’s new Trade Remedies Authority (TRA), which is being set up to deliver the UK’s future trade remedies framework, should maintain and review to decide the appropriate level of duties for the UK. This is to provide certainty to UK industry and avoid exposing it to injury from known unfair trade practices.

5. We are grateful to the trade associations and other organisations which publicised the call for evidence to their members and networks, and to everyone who responded.

6. The call for evidence asked companies, which produce goods in the UK, whether they produce goods which are subject to EU trade remedy measures. They were asked to state whether they support, are neutral to, or oppose the maintaining of those measures when the UK begins to operate its independent trade remedy framework. They were also asked for data about their production and sales, and total UK production and sales.

7. DIT used that information to assess whether the applications met the government’s criteria for maintaining a measure. These 3 criteria are:

a. We have received an application to maintain measures from UK businesses which produce, in the UK, products subject to trade remedies measures.

b. The application is supported by UK businesses which produce a sufficient proportion of those products (this is a test required by the WTO Anti-Dumping Agreement, Article 5.4.

c. The market share of the UK businesses which produce those products is above a certain level.

8. Measures which met the criteria will be maintained until the TRA carries out a full review based on UK-specific market data. The TRA’s reviews will decide the level at which all maintained measures should be maintained, if at all, once the UK begins to operate its own independent trade remedies framework.

9. If a measure did not receive an application to be maintained, or did not meet the required criteria, it will not be reviewed by the TRA or maintained when the UK begins to operate its independent trade remedy framework.

10. This document sets out our provisional findings based on the data which we received from responses to the call for evidence.

Responses from non-producers

11. The call for evidence was directed at UK businesses (or their representatives) which produce goods currently subject to EU anti-dumping or anti-subsidy measures and ongoing investigations.

12. We also asked for specific information from wider industry within the UK and internationally, including downstream, consumer and user industries.

13. The call for evidence asked specific questions and the information that non-producers provided enabled us to verify the data we had received. This helped us to make an accurate assessment about whether applications met our criteria.

14. We are grateful to the interested parties who responded with their views on certain cases. At this stage in the process we have only used the data which enables us to calculate, or verify information about, our criteria: producer support for measures and the UK market share of producers.

15. We recognise that interested parties have strong views on the downstream impact of certain measures. When the TRA reviews all maintained measures, it will assess, as part of those reviews, whether measures are in the overall economic interest of the UK.

How the implementation period, temporary customs arrangement or facilitated customs arrangement may affect this process

Implementation period

16. The UK will leave the European Union on 29 March 2019. If agreed with the European Union in the Withdrawal Agreement, the UK will then enter into a time limited implementation period, which will conclude at the end of December 2020. During the implementation period, EU trade remedy rules and regulations will continue to apply. This would include applying new EU trade remedy measures that come into force during the implementation period.

17. To ensure continuity for UK business, the UK will continue to prepare for a range of potential outcomes. In a ‘no deal scenario’, the earliest point at which the UK could begin to operate its own independent trade remedies framework will be 30 March 2019.

18. For any new measures, which the EU puts in place during the implementation period, we will approach any UK producers of the affected product(s) to understand whether there is an interest in such measures being maintained once the UK begins to operate its independent trade remedies framework.

19. We understand that UK production and market share of the products covered by measures may change during the implementation period. That may mean that, towards the end of the implementation period, we will need to review some decisions about which measures we will maintain. We would do this based on up to date evidence, in discussion with relevant stakeholders. This activity will not affect the EU’s current competence, regulations and process for bringing forward new trade remedies complaints and the initiation of new investigations. UK industry should continue to approach the European Commission for the purposes of initiating new investigations until further notice.

Temporary customs arrangement

20. As part of the ongoing negotiations with the EU, and to ensure that the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement is protected under the full range of scenarios, the UK outlined plans in June for a temporary customs arrangement. This would ensure that there would be no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, preserving the UK’s internal market and Northern Ireland’s place within it; and protecting Ireland’s place within the EU Internal Market and Customs Union. The UK is clear that this is not its preferred option and this temporary arrangement will be replaced by a permanent end state settlement, whose terms will need to be agreed by both parties.

21. Under the temporary customs arrangement EU trade remedy rules and regulations will continue to apply. This would include applying new EU trade remedy measures that come into force during the implementation period and temporary customs arrangement.

Facilitated customs arrangement

22. The White Paper on the Future Relationship between the UK and EU proposed a new facilitated customs arrangement. As if in a combined customs territory with the EU, the UK would apply the EU’s tariffs and trade policy for goods intended for the EU. The UK would also apply its own tariffs and trade policy including an independent trade remedies regime for goods intended for consumption in the UK. Mirroring the EU’s customs approach at its external border would ensure that goods entering the EU via the UK have complied with EU customs processes and the correct EU duties have been paid. This would remove the need for customs processes between the UK and the EU, including customs declarations, routine requirements for rules of origin, and entry and exit summary declarations. Together with the wider free trade area, the FCA would preserve frictionless trade for the majority of UK goods trade, and reduce frictions for UK exporters and importers. The UK’s goal is to facilitate the greatest possible trade, whether with the EU or the rest of the world.

23. This would mean:

a. Where a good reaches the UK border, and the destination can be robustly demonstrated by a trusted trader, it will pay the UK tariff if it is destined for the UK and the EU tariff if it is destined for the EU.

b. Where a good reaches the UK border and the destination cannot be robustly demonstrated at the point of import, it will pay the higher of the UK or EU tariff. Where the good’s destination is later identified to mean it should be subject to a lower tariff it would be eligible for a repayment from the UK government equal to the difference between the two tariffs.

c. Under the UK’s proposals, it is estimated up to 96% of UK goods trade would be most likely to be able to pay the correct or no tariff upfront, with the remainder most likely to use the repayment mechanism.

24. Where there is a material risk of circumvention of higher UK tariffs, the UK would make it illegal to pay the wrong tariff, and use risk and intelligence based checks across the country, rather than at the border, to check that the right tariffs are being paid. This would protect against fraud, ensure that the UK has an effective trade remedies regime and strengthen the UK’s position in trade negotiations.

Provisional findings^{[footnote 1]}

25. Following a wide ranging programme of external engagement, we received 74 responses to the call for evidence. Of these, 47 were from producers, and 27 were from other parties.

26. Having assessed the data provided by respondents, our provisional findings are that 42 of the existing EU measures met our criteria and should therefore be put in place and reviewed by the TRA to recommend the appropriate level of duties for the UK market, once the UK begins to operate an independent trade remedies framework. 72 did not meet the criteria and would therefore not be reviewed or put in place once the UK begins to operate an independent trade remedies framework.

27. Please note that these are our provisional findings, and we are publishing them to encourage anyone with an interest to submit further information which may affect these findings. Guidance about how to submit further information is in the ‘Next Steps’ section below.

Name of measure	Case Code (AD – Anti Dumping, AS – Anti Subsidy)	Producer Application Received?	Countries against which measures are applied	Producer support threshold met?	Market share threshold  met ?	Provisional Finding
Acesulfame potassium	AD611	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Aluminium foil	AD610	No	Russia	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Aluminium foil in large rolls	AD534	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Aluminium foil in small rolls	AD582	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Aluminium radiators	AD578	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Aluminium road wheels	AD541	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain
Ammonium nitrate	AD330	Yes	Russia	Met	Met	Maintain
Aspartame (sweetener)	AD621	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Barium carbonate	AD475	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Bicycles	AD287	Yes	China (extended to Cambodia, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Tunisia)	Met	Not met	Terminate
Biodiesel	AD593	Yes	Argentina	Met	Met	Maintain
Biodiesel	AD593	Yes	Indonesia	Met	Met	Maintain
Biodiesel	AD531	Yes	USA (extended to Canada)	Met	Met	Maintain
Biodiesel	AS532	Yes	USA (extended to Canada)	Met	Met	Maintain
Bioethanol	AD580	Yes	USA	Met	Met	Maintain
Cast iron articles	AD637	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain
Ceramic tableware / Kitchenware	AD586	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain
Ceramic tiles	AD560	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain
Chamois leather	AD496	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain
Citric acid	AD522	No	China (extended to Malaysia)	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Citrus fruits	AD524	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Coated fine paper	AD552	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Coated fine paper	AS557	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Cold rolled flat steel products	AD620	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain
Cold rolled flats steel products	AD620	Yes	Russia	Met	Met	Maintain
Continuous filament glass fibres	AS549	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain
Continuous filament glass fibres	AD603	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain
Corrosion resistant steel	AD639	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain
Electric bicycles	AD643	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Electric bicycles	AS646	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Ferro silicon	AD516	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Ferro silicon	AD642	No	Egypt	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Ferro silicon	AD516	No	Russia	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Ferro silicon	AD642	No	Ukraine	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Grain orientated flat-rolled products of electrical steel (GOES)	AD608	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain
Grain orientated flat-rolled products of electrical steel (GOES)	AD608	Yes	Japan	Met	Met	Maintain
Grain orientated flat-rolled products of electrical steel (GOES)	AD608	Yes	Korea	Met	Met	Maintain
Grain orientated flat-rolled products of electrical steel (GOES)	AD608	Yes	Russia	Met	Met	Maintain
Grain orientated flat-rolled products of electrical steel (GOES)	AD608	Yes	USA	Met	Met	Maintain
Graphite electrode systems	AD469	No	India	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Graphite electrode systems	AS470	No	India	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Hand pallet trucks and their essential parts	AD474	No	China (extended to Thailand and Vietnam)	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Heavy (quarto) plate	AD631	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain
High tenacity polyester yarns	AD547	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Hot-rolled flat products of iron, non-alloy or other alloy steel	AD635	Yes	Brazil	Met	Met	Maintain
Hot-rolled flat products of iron, non-alloy or other alloy steel	AD630	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain
Hot-rolled flat products of iron, non-alloy or other alloy steel	AS634	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain
Hot-rolled flat products of iron, non-alloy or other alloy steel	AD635	Yes	Iran	Met	Met	Maintain
Hot-rolled flat products of iron, non-alloy or other alloy steel	AD635	Yes	Russia	Met	Met	Maintain
Hot-rolled flat products of iron, non-alloy or other alloy steel	AD635	Yes	Ukraine	Met	Met	Maintain
Ironing boards	AD506	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain
Lever arch mechanisms	AD491	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Lightweight thermal paper (65gr/m2 or less)	AD629	No	Korea	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Low carbon ferro-chrome	AD638	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Low carbon ferro-chrome	AD638	No	Russia	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Low carbon ferro-chrome	AD638	No	Turkey	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Manganese dioxide	AD520	No	South Africa	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Melamine	AD554	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Molybdenum wires	AD540	No	China (extended to Malaysia)	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Monosodium glutamate	AD521	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Monosodium glutamate	AD602	No	Indonesia	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Okoume plywood	AD471	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Open mesh glass fibre fabrics	AD558	No	China (extended to India, Indonesia, Taiwan and Thailand)	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Organic coated steel	AD584	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain
Organic coated steel	AS587	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain
Oxalic Acid	AD568	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Oxalic Acid	AD568	No	India	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Peroxosulphates	AD511	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Polyethylene terephthalate	AS426	Yes	India	Met	Met	Maintain
PSC wires and strands	AD529	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain
Rainbow trout	AS606	Yes	Turkey	Met	Met	Maintain
Rebar	AD633	No	Belarus	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Rebar (high fatigue performance steel reinforcing bars)	AD619	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain
Ring binder mechanisms	AD350	No	China (extended to Laos and Vietnam)	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Seamless pipes and tubes (large 406.4mm)	AD632	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Seamless pipes and tubes of iron or steel	AD533	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Seamless pipes and tubes of iron or steel	AD490	No	Russia	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Seamless pipes and tubes of iron or steel	AD490	No	Ukraine	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Seamless pipes and tubes of stainless steel	AD565	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Silicon metal	AD245	No	China (extended to Korea and Taiwan)	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Sodium cyclamate	AD467	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Sodium cyclamate	AD467	No	Indonesia	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Sodium gluconate	AD544	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Solar glass	AD598	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Solar glass	AS599	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Solar panels	AD590	No	China (extended to Malaysia and Taiwan)	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Solar panels	AS594	No	China (extended to Malaysia and Taiwan)	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Stainless steel bars and rods	AS556	Yes	India	Met	Met	Maintain
Stainless steel cold rolled flat products	AD607	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Stainless steel cold rolled flat products	AD607	No	Taiwan	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Stainless steel tubes and pipe butt wielding fittings	AD622	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Stainless steel tubes and pipe butt wielding fittings	AD622	No	Taiwan	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Stainless steel wires	AD591	Yes	India	Not met	Not met	Terminate
Stainless steel wires	AS592	Yes	India	Not met	Not met	Terminate
Steel (wire) ropes and cables		No	China (extended to Korea and Morocco)	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Sulphanilic acid	AD444	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Sweetcorn	AD507	No	Thailand	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Tartaric acid	AD488	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Threaded tube and pipe cast fittings of malleable cast iron	AD585	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Threaded tube and pipe cast fittings of malleable cast iron	AD585	No	Thailand	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Trichloroisocyanuric acid	AD480	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Tube and pipe fittings of iron or steel	AD323	No	China (extended to Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Philippines)	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Tube and pipe fittings of iron or steel	AD442	No	Korea	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Tube and pipe fittings of iron or steel	AD442	No	Malaysia	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Tube and pipe fittings of iron or steel	AD579	No	Russia	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Tube and pipe fittings of iron or steel	AD579	No	Turkey	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Tubes and pipes of ductile cast iron	AD616	No	India	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Tubes and pipes of ductile cast iron	AS618	No	India	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Tungsten carbide	AD238	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Tungsten electrodes	AD502	No	China	N/A	N/A	Terminate
Tyres	AD640	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain
Tyres	AS641	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain
Welded tubes and pipes of iron or non-alloy steel	AD523	Yes	Belarus	Met	Met	Maintain
Welded tubes and pipes of iron or non-alloy steel	AD523	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain
Welded tubes and pipes of iron or non-alloy steel	AD523	Yes	Russia	Met	Met	Maintain
Wire rod	AD530	Yes	China	Met	Met	Maintain

28. We have not stated the proportion of producer support or market share because in most cases doing so would have revealed commercially confidential information about companies’ sales and production.

Next steps

29. We invite you to review our provisional findings and provide any further relevant evidence which may affect our conclusions. Please refer to the original call for evidence which explains what information we need.

• Producers – if you did not do so before and now wish to provide an application to maintain measures once the UK is operating its independent trade remedies framework, please provide a full response. The list of measures is at Annex B (PDF, 319KB). This must include a completed Annex A (Word, 32KB), and full responses to the 5 mandatory questions in the call for evidence. If you wish to provide information about the UK production or sales of a particular product covered by measures, please provide answers to ‘optional questions’ 6 to 9 in the call for evidence.
• Non-producers – we welcome further input from non-producers who would like to contribute to this exercise. Please refer to questions 10 to 17 in the call for evidence to guide your response.

30. Please provide any further relevant evidence by 24 August to traderemedies@trade.gov.uk.

31. The department has set up 3 events to discuss the call for evidence provisional findings and explain the measures review process. They are:

• an industry roundtable at 11am to 12 noon on Monday 6 August, at 3 Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2AW
• a webinar at 3 to 4 pm on Thursday 9 August
• a webinar at 11am to 12 noon on Thursday 16 August

32. Anyone with an interest can join the webinars remotely, or attend the roundtable in person. The events will cover the same content so you need only join one. To book, please contact the trade remedies team at traderemedies@trade.gov.uk, or register for the webinars using the links above.

33. The Department for International Trade will assess any further relevant evidence. By the end of the year it will publish a list of the measures which will be maintained and reviewed. This will allow it to assess the appropriate UK duty to apply once the UK is operating its independent trade remedies framework.

34. The measures which will be maintained will be reviewed by the Trade Remedies Authority and adjusted if necessary to ensure they reflect the UK specific market situation and injury to UK industry.

Appeals

35. Once we have published, later this year, the list of measures which will be maintained and reviewed by the TRA, there will be opportunity to appeal the decision. Appeals will reconsider the evidence provided, to decide whether the right decision has been made in a particular case.

36. Appeals will only consider the information submitted prior to the deadline for responses – ie 24 August. Please note that if you appeal, you will not be able to introduce new information which was not provided by 24 August and which therefore was part of the original assessment.

37. We will explain how to appeal when we publish the list of measures which will be maintained and reviewed, later this year.

38. At this stage, if you disagree with any of the provisional findings in this document, please refer to the original call for evidence and provide any further relevant evidence to help us make an accurate decision.

Appendix

Method of analysis

Support from domestic industry

1. The WTO, which sets out the rules which underpin trade remedy systems for all countries, requires that an application must be supported by domestic producers representing at least 50% of the total production of the domestic industry either supporting or opposing the application. The WTO also requires that producers explicitly supporting the application must account for at least 25% of the domestic industry’s total production. We applied the same thresholds to assess whether to accept applications to maintain measures. To calculate this, we asked:

• whether businesses produce products covered by measures and whether they support those measures (questions 1, 2 and 3 in the call for evidence)
• how many of the products are produced by the respondent UK business (question 4)
• how many of the products are produced in the UK in total (question 6)

2. This information meant we could calculate:

• supporting firm(s)’ production (a)
• total domestic production (b)
• opposing firm(s)’ production (c)

3. We carried out the following calculation:

• a/(a+c) = standing (>50%)
• a/b = standing (>25%)

Market share requirement

4. In order to aid in deciding whether to maintain a trade remedy measure, we applied a UK-specific threshold, in addition to the WTO thresholds outlined above. This required the domestic industry to have more than a certain market share for maintaining measures, in order to avoid investing resources in reviews which are very unlikely to result in measures. This is in line with our proposals for initiating new investigations as outlined in the paper Preparing for our Future UK Trade Policy.

5. To calculate the market share threshold, we asked for:

• UK firm(s)’ domestic sales (d)
• total domestic sales, including imports (e)

6. We carried out the following calculation:

• d/e = market share

Confidentiality

7. Information which you provide to us in response to this document will be used by us for the purpose of determining which EU measures we propose to maintain as UK measures. It will not be used by us for any other purpose.

8. Information which you provide to us in response to this document which you have indicated to us is confidential (or that ought reasonably to be considered to be confidential), together with any personal data (within the meaning of the Data Protection Act 1998), will be treated as confidential by the department.

9. This means that we will have in place and maintain proper security measures and procedures to protect the confidentiality of this information. It also means that it will only be available to those of the department’s officers and employees to whom it is reasonable to make it available in connection with the purpose of determining which EU measures we propose to maintain as UK measures.

10. Unless we are required to do so by law, confidential information will not be disclosed by us to any other government department or to any other person or body without your prior written consent.

Original call for evidence

11. Read the original call for evidence.

1. A provisional finding to maintain measures means that the measures will be reviewed by the TRA to decide the appropriate UK duty. ↩