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EU Companies conducting business in the EU must comply with strict competition and state aid laws. These laws ensure that there is fair competition on the EU Market.
However, EU producers regularly face competition on the EU market from dumped or subsidised imports from companies operating from countries where no such legal strictures apply. Dumped or subsidised imports distort the market and put compliant EU companies at a competitive disadvantage vis-a-vis their third country competitors.
The most effective way to counter these market-distorting practices and to establish a level playing field is to take Trade Defence action. The EU’s Trade Defence laws provide for the imposition at the EU border, of Anti-Dumping and Anti-Subsidy duties on imports, found to have been dumped or subsidised.
If your company is experiencing such unfair trade practices, you can file a complaint with the European Commission’s Trade Directorate and request an investigation. EUROPEAN TRADE DEFENCE BV can formulate your complaint for submission to the Commission and guide you successfully through the investigation process.
EUROPEAN TRADE DEFENCE (ETD)
ETD was founded in 2014 as an independent and result oriented consultancy firm, specialising in the area of trade defence. Uniquely we have positioned ourselves to work exclusively for European companies and to help them counter the market distorting effects of dumped or subsidised imports. We have a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the whole Trade Defence armoury and in particular, anti-dumping anti-subsidy and safeguard rules. Our collective experience as both practitioners and policy makers has convinced us and more importantly, our clients, how effective these Trade Defence Instruments can be in fighting the effects of competitive distortions in International Trade.
Up to 2014, Willem De Munck was the Deputy Head of the Policy Unit, in the Trade Defence Instruments Directorate, of the European Commission’s DG TRADE. He was responsible for trade defence policy formulation, ensuring consistency in its application and dealing with issues such as market economy status for China and Vietnam. He was also responsible for relations with all stakeholders, and ran DG TRADE’S Trade Defence complaints Office. He has an unrivalled knowledge of the functioning of the Commission in general, and DG TRADE in particular. Having worked for some time on Trade defence issues inside the Commission, in addition to his policy experience, he has profound knowledge of all investigative areas and was centrally involved in investigation techniques training and investigation questionnaire design. As such, he is ideally positioned to advise and guide clients on the conduct of anti-dumping procedures, from the lodging of the initial complaint to imposition of measures.
This makes him uniquely equipped to provide a broad range of services to European industries, including feasibility studies, drafting of complaints, replying to questionnaires issued by investigating authorities, preparing companies for on-the-spot investigations by (EU or third country) authorities and assist clients during the investigations.
Since 1 January 2022 we joined with O’Connor and Company - European lawyers at https://oconnor.eu/, a law firm which supports the same European values as ETD. Our combined experience makes us an unrivalled law firm with the highest experience in EU trade law.
