Services

We offer a wide variety of services to companies affected by future or ongoing proceedings, as well as by existing measures.  The strategy and services clearly depend on the type of business affected by trade remedy measures or proceedings.  Below is the list of the services that we are most frequently asked to provide.

EU producers

  • analyze the possibility of filing – and if the conditions are ripe, filing – a complaint against unfair imports and management of the entire case, including lobbying of the European Commission and EU Member States and securing sufficient support and/or neutrality of EU using/consuming industries;
  • in case there is no agreement among EU producers to file a case, analyze the possibility of disqualifying certain EU producers from the definition of “Union industry” to ensure sufficient support;
  • helping EU producers – ambivalent about the merits of a trade defence action pushed by other EU producers – analyze their options.

Foreign exporters

  • analyze import trends in the EU and the profitability of the competing EU industry to assess the likelihood of a trade defence action against imports;
  • represent foreign exporters in all stages of EU trade defence proceedings, including registration, devising strategy, preparation of questionnaire responses, preparation for – and participation in – verification visits, and building coalitions to prevent the imposition of duties in the EU.

EU users

  • analyze the competitive situation on the market to devise appropriate strategy for EU users opposing duties;
  • register for – and participate in – the proceeding, file questionnaire responses, devise overall strategy (in particular vis-à-vis EU producers seeking protection and foreign exporters opposing the duties), draft arguments as to why imposition of trade defence measures is against EU interest, lobby EU Member States.

Before we provide our services, we discuss with the clients their overall aims and goals, as well as their financial constraints.  We realize that money spent on participation in trade defence proceedings is an expense that must be warranted from the business perspective. After identifying the key issues, players and dynamics (trade as well as non-trade) at stake, we prepare a strategy narrowly tailored to achieving the client’s goals, applying most work and resources where they are most likely to bring tangible results.  For example, when acting for smaller EU users, while we coordinating with industry-wide coalitions, we focus exclusively on EU Member States where they do business, leaving expensive EU Member State roadshow to the bigger players with bigger budgets.  On the other hand, when working for industry-wide coalitions, we narrow in on the European Commission, big and influential EU Member States and other Brussels-based stakeholders to bring institutional pressure.  When acting for foreign exporters, we usually advise restricting work to anti-dumping/subsidy work as most “EU interest” arguments are only persuasive if advanced by EU players.  Our main directive is not to waste our client’s money.




                       Rue Abbé Cuypers 3          1040 Brussels          BE         

www.eutradedefence.com