The World Trade Organization (WTO) has announced that Turkey has requested WTO dispute consultations with the European Union (EU) regarding the EU’s safeguard measures on imported steel products.
In the request that was circulated to WTO members on 19 March Turkey claims that the EU safeguard measures, in the form of tariff-rate quotas and additional duties, and the investigation that led to their imposition, are inconsistent with a number of provisions of the Agreement on Safeguards and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994.
The EU initiated the safeguard investigation in March 2018, with provisional measures imposed in July 2019. In February 2019 the EU decided to apply a definitive safeguard on 26 categories of steel products through June 2021.
What is a request for consultations? It formally initiates a dispute in the WTO. Consultations give the parties an opportunity to discuss the matter and to find a satisfactory solution without proceeding further with litigation. After 60 days, if consultations have failed to resolve the dispute, the complainant may request adjudication by a panel.
Story by: Riaan de Lange