The EU has accepted the adoption of a World Trade Organisation (WTO) panel report regarding the Community's anti-dumping measures on farmed salmon from Norway.

Following a complex ruling issued by the WTO on November 16, both Norway and the EU claimed victory in the dispute.

A statement issued by the Commission today states that, although the panel has found in favour of Norway with regard to certain issues related to the EU measures, the measures themselves have not been called into question and the panel did not accept Norway's repeated calls for a repeal of the EU anti-dumping measures on dumped salmon from Norway.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said: "The adoption of the panel report today should hopefully mark the end of this dispute."

He added: "The EU will proceed to implement the relevant technical parts of the panel report and will inform the WTO accordingly." Pending the implementation process, the current minimum import price will remain in place.

Norway's request to remove these anti-dumping measures was the key issue in the dispute and the EC's position has thus been vindicated, the Commission added.

According to the EU, the Panel found in favour of Norway only with regard to a certain number of issues. "Some findings in favour of the complainant are usual in WTO disputes, and no surprise in this case given the many claims brought by Norway. The Panel also dismissed a significant number of claims brought by Norway, and, crucially, the EC measure itself has not been called into question," the statement continued.

Following the adoption of the report, the EU will have 30 days to inform the WTO Dispute Settlement Body of its intentions in respect of implementation of the recommendations and rulings of the Dispute Settlement Body.

Meanwhile, Trond Davidsen, director of trade policy with FHL (The Norwegian Seafood Federation), told FISHupdate.com that Norway still believes that the EU will have no choice but to lift the measures.

In January 2006, the EU imposed anti-dumping measures on imports of farmed salmon originating in Norway in the form of a Minimum Import Price. The EU claimed that Norway had previously dumped large amounts of salmon on the EU market – exporting fish at prices lower than their real value in the Norwegian market.

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend

Bookmark this

---