The European Union (EU) got the World Trade Organization (WTO) to arbitrate in the trade conflict with Colombia over tariffs on frozen potato chips from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.
“Members of the WTO they accepted a second demand from the EU to establish a panel to rule on Colombia’s anti-dumping duties about frozen potato chips, “announced a person in charge of the world organization.
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The European Commission, responsible for trade policy on behalf of the EU, has already made a first demand for arbitration, which Colombia rejected. Under WTO rules, the second panel request is in practice automatically accepted.
Brussels welcomed the WTO decision and recalled that this is the result of the lack of results of bilateral contacts with Colombia, between these meetings in mid-January in Bogotá, according to a note from its commercial department.
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Colombia, at the end of an investigation in August 2017 on imports of frozen potatoes from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, decided in November 2018 to impose anti-dumping duties against several companies for two years.
The Colombian government imposed additional tariffs of between 3% and 8%, upon detecting a practice of “dumping”, that is, the sale of these products between 2016 and 2017 below the price that should be adequate. Europeans view anti-dumping tariffs as unjustified and affect exports worth 19 million euros a year (about $ 21.4 million), according to the European Commission.
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Anti-dumping measures are authorized but only under conditions and are often the subject of a complaint. In Belgium, Colombia’s decision to impose tariffs fell like a jug of cold water for its ‘frite’ industry, one of the country’s most international symbols alongside chocolate and beer.
Belgium produced around two million tonnes of frozen potato chips in 2018, according to data from the association of professionals in the sector Belgapom. 90 percent of production is exported and a third goes outside the EU.
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AFP
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