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Protocol on Amending Treaty on EAEU to Improve Mechanisms for Imposing Trade Remedies Approved
At the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council held on December 26 in the Leningrad region (Russian Federation), the Heads of State of the Eurasian Economic Union approved the Protocol on Amending the Treaty on the EAEU in terms of a special mechanism used in conducting investigations and making decisions on the application or non-application of special safeguard, anti-dumping and countervailing measures.
"The main objective of the Protocol is to improve approaches to the preparation of decisions on the application of protective measures, allowing to take into account the interests of all participants in the process and to make balanced and prompt decisions, while providing maximum flexibility," mentioned Andrey Slepnev, EEC Minister in charge of Trade.
Thus, the decision of the Board of the Commission to apply a measure should meet the principle of balance, which aims to exclude legitimate risks for individual EAEU countries while ensuring the protection of producers.
Union producers are provided with a clearer procedure for resolving conflicts in the event of a Member State exercising its veto right over a safeguard measure. In particular, a compromise decision will be found more quickly, which will minimize the negative consequences for them while the safeguard measure is not in force. If necessary, the EAEU Court will be involved, and its conclusions will be taken into account in the final decision on the application of the measure.
In turn, additional safeguards are provided for consumers of the product that is the subject of investigation: if the market situation so requires, together with the introduction of the safeguard measure, recommendations will be made to producers to prevent consumer discrimination, problems with product availability and unreasonable price increases.
Another innovation is the norms on the "negative decision" of the EEC Board: if the Members of the Board object to a proposed protective measure, businesses will have the possibility to familiarize with the reasons for such a decision and, if necessary, to challenge the outcome of the case in the EAEU Court.
The amendment package also includes provisions to ensure that affected Member State producers are entitled to protection even when dumped or subsidized imports do not threaten the Union as a whole. An administration procedure has been developed, which will allow introducing a measure only in respect of those goods that are intended for consumption in the territory of certain EAEU countries (in a separate market), reducing the likelihood of negative consequences for businesses of other Member States," summarized Andrey Slepnev.
