11/19/2021 at 8:42 p.m. CET
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The World Trade Organization (WTO) decided on Friday that the rates of United States Spanish black olive imports are “incompatible” with the organization’s regulations, in a dispute raised by the European Union (EU) since 2019 and whose final decision was delayed by the pandemic.
The United States acted in a WTO inconsistent manner in various aspects of its investigations, which had led to the imposition of these duties in the form of countervailing duties, indicated sources close to the WTO.
The WTO expert group that ruled the dispute specifically considered that The United States has done wrong by deducing that the subsidies granted to Spanish black olive producers under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) could be subject to customs duties.
Europe’s reaction
The European Commission (EC) has expressed confidence that the United States “will take action”. in accordance with the opinion of this Friday of the World Trade Organization (WTO) by which it considers “Illegal & rdquor; prices that this country imposes on the importation of Spanish black olives.
Now, the European Union (EU), which raised a dispute in this regard in 2019, expects the United States to comply with the recommendations of the WTO panel which ruled that “the countervailing duties imposed by the the previous US administration of Donald Trump, in 2018, are illegal according to the rules of the organization“The EC said in a statement.
“The EC’s efforts to vigorously defend the interests and rights of EU producers, in this case Spanish black olive producers, are bearing fruit,” said the EC’s Executive Vice-President and Minister of Trade Valdis Dombrovskis.
As he put it, the WTO “has confirmed our assertions that anti-subsidy duties are not justified and violate the rules& rdquor; of the organization itself. “These duties have seriously affected Spanish olive producers, as they have caused a drastic drop in their exports to the United States. We now hope that this country will adopt the appropriate measures to apply the WTO ruling, so that exports of black olives from Spain to this country can resume under normal conditions ”, he concluded.
On August 1, 2018, the United States Department of Commerce established a combined anti-dumping and countervailing duty of between 30% and 44% on imports of Spanish black olives, depending on the company in question.
The EU challenged these rights in the WTO on the grounds that they violated certain provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994, the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures ( SCM Agreement) and the Anti-Dumping Agreement. Since the imposition of these measures, exports of Spanish black olives to the United States have decreased by almost 60%The EC recalled, adding that before the imposition of duties, Spain exported olives worth 26 million euros per year to the North American country.