EU ministers throw out cotton dumping ban
06 October 1998
EU ministers throw out cotton dumping ban
EUROPEAN Union (EU) foreign ministers have rejected plans to impose a five-year anti-dumping duty on unbleached cotton imports.
The action is a blow to the European Commissions anti-dumping unit which has twice found evidence of dumping and recommended punitive duties. It is also a setback for EU cotton weavers who say they are being undermined by cheaper-than-cost imports.
Eurocotton, the cotton weavers lobby, complained about dumping in 1994, but had its complaint rejected. A second complaint, limited to unbleached cotton, led to the Commission imposing provisional, or six-month anti-dumping duties in 1996.
Eurocotton complained for the third time last year. It was proposing that the six-month measures should be turned into five-year ones.
The five countries for which import duty was rejected were China, Egypt, India, Indonesia and Pakistan.
Financial Times 06/10/98 page 4