anti-dumping procedure

Secondly, there is space for the exercise of discretion in anti-dumping procedures.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, over recent years the number of anti-dumping procedures applied by the European Commission has increased.

At a time of serious economic crisis like the present, it seems unreasonable and masochistic to make the conclusion of anti-dumping procedures complicated and perhaps impractical.

The barriers include quantitative restrictions, export subsidies, customs barriers, public procurement policies, countervailing duties, anti-dumping procedures and tax policies, the report by the European Commission said.

When Members States vote 10 to 5 against anti-dumping procedures, which they believe will not be in the interest of the industry, then you and the Commission must accept those decisions.

The uniform rules which would then also apply to the associated countries would make anti-dumping procedures superfluous and unnecessary; these should be replaced by appropriate implementing procedures in the Association Agreements.

At the very opening of the anti-dumping procedures, we are changing from the objectivity of legal certainty to an intervention by Member States, which threatens to become the outcome of bargaining between the Commission and Member States.

Turning to the related issue of Russia's demand to be treated as a market economy in anti-dumping procedures, the Commission has already submitted a proposal to the Council that will improve the position of Russian companies, and we are looking at whether there is more we can do to meet their concerns.

(IT) Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I abstained from today's vote on this report on comitology because once again, people are trying to make anti-dumping procedures inapplicable or linked to discretionary political choices which, as we know, are still one of the few worthwhile defensive instruments to prevent unfair competition.