EIFI’s Official Response to the EU’s Annulment of the AD Measure Against Certain Chinese Iron & Steel Fasteners

EIFI notes with disappointment the publication and entry into force of Regulation 2016/278 which annuls the anti-dumping duties on iron and steel fasteners originating in China and Malaysia. The duties were in place because Chinese producers were dumping fasteners on the EU market causing direct injury to Union producers and the Union market itself. The duties also applied to fasteners from Malaysia because Chinese traders were using that country to circumvent the duties on China.

Dumping is an unfair trade practice which is subject to sanction under the WTO’s global trade rules. This is because dumping can destroy markets and innovation and drive efficient producers out of business. WTO law allows Members to protect their markets against these unfair trade practices.

The EU fasteners industry is made up a large number of small and medium sized family producers. It employs directly around 30,000 people across the Union and many more indirectly. It is a high tech precision industry that provides essential inputs into the wider European economy. Without fasteners cars, and all other high value EU products, fall apart. Without a healthy fastener industry and the daily interplay between producers and users, innovation in our industry and in our customer’s industries simply doesn’t happen.

The European Commission decided that the duties had to be annulled because the WTO found that there were procedural mistakes in the Commission investigation leading to the imposition of the duties. The WTO did not find that Chinese producers were not dumping. EIFI continues to work so that the European fasteners industry remains financially strong and capable of renewing itself and being innovative. Our industry contributes to jobs, innovation and growth in Europe and the making of word-class high-tech EU products. In the light of the annulment of the existing duties countering unfair trade, EIFI remains vigilant to ensure that the EU market is not undermined by new or continuing unfair trade practices wherever they originate.

The EU fastener industry is committed to open trade and fair competition. It has entrusted EIFI with the task of working with the EU and other national and international institutions to ensure that fairness is respected by all.

~Anders Karlsson President of EIFI - European Industrial Fasteners Institute~