On 17 September 2024, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), an EU body that prosecutes among others financial crimes that affect the EU budget, announced that it is seeking criminal penalties from two companies and five of their directors of more than 8 years imprisonment along with a fine of over EUR 25 million. Over 30 properties linked to the defendants were seized to ensure that the defendants can meet their financial liabilities.

In keeping with tradition, we are pleased to invite you to our annual Global Year-End Review of Import/Export & Trade Compliance Developments Conference. The conference will provide valuable insights on the latest developments, challenges and opportunities in the ever-changing landscape of international trade.
We are holding this conference in a split-hybrid format, with an in-person event in Santa Clara, CA, on 12 November and virtual panels on 19-21 November.

For the second week of our Annual Compliance Conference, we discussed key trade compliance issues impacting our clients globally. Specifically, we discussed the trade policy response of the US, EU and U.K. to ever increasing geopolitical disruption, global strategies for handling sanctions regulators and enforcement, and key global sanctions and export controls developments.

Anti-dumping and anti-subsidy rules are a powerful tools that Belgian/EU goods manufacturers can employ to support their business. Anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures take the form of additional import duties that are due on competing imported goods. These duties, which are in force for an average of 12 years and are at an average level of 30%, reduce the import volume of imported goods by an average of 85%. They thus significantly reshape markets for prolonged periods.

In the realm of international trade, the anti-dumping instrument plays a crucial role in safeguarding domestic industries against unfair trading practices. Navigating the intricate landscape of anti-dumping procedures across various jurisdictions requires an understanding of each jurisdiction’s rules and processes. To help further that understanding, the Baker McKenzie global trade remedies team has put together a comparative table of anti-dumping procedures in five key anti-dumping jurisdictions: the European Union, the United States, Brazil, China, and Japan.

Discussions at the World Trade Organization on key issues concerning the regulation of international trade are intensifying in the lead up to the 13th biennial meeting of the highest decision making organ of the organization — the Ministerial Conference — scheduled to take place from 26-29 February 2024 in Abu Dhabi.

Baker McKenzie’s Sanctions Blog published the alert titled Blog Series: Sanctions Enforcement Around the World, the Belgian Perspective on 26 June 2023. Read the article via the link here. Please also visit our Sanctions Blog for the most recent updates. 

World Trade Organization Members laid out several key principles for determining the customs value of imported goods in the 1995 Customs Valuation Agreement with the aim of ensuring that the value of Members’ tariff concessions would not be nullified or undermined. Nonetheless, the WTO is – incorrectly – seldomly considered as a relevant forum for addressing customs valuation issues.

The European Union actively uses anti-dumping and anti-subsidy (or countervailing duty) investigations to protect the EU manufacturing industry from competition from imports. Imports from Türkiye are a prime target for these investigations: in the past 20 years, imports from Türkiye were targeted in 15 anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations. Five of these investigations were initiated in the last three years.

The e-commerce moratorium at the World Trade Organization (WTO) continues to provide fertile ground for discussions between WTO Members. In the most recent discussion round, held in April 2023 in the context of the WTO Work Programme on Electronic Commerce, WTO Members agreed there was a need for further discussions on the definition and scope of the moratorium, and on its implications on developing countries.