WTO backs EU in frozen fries row with Colombia

A worker in a Belgian friterie in Brussels. Tuesday, April 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

The World Trade Organization backed the European Union on Thursday in the latest chapter in its case against Colombia over import duties imposed on frozen fries from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.

The dispute has been under discussion at the WTO since November 2019, a year after Colombia imposed anti-dumping duties on frozen fries from the three European countries.

Anti-dumping measures are permitted by the Geneva-based WTO, but only under certain conditions and are often subject to challenges.

Brussels argued the measures announced by Bogota in November 2018 were completely unjustified and harmed European companies.

The EU won the case in December 2022, with the arbitrators faulting Colombia for the way it calculated the tariffs, and determining the duties breached global trade rules.

But the EU asked a WTO compliance panel last year to re-examine the case, charging that Colombia had failed to implement the initial decision.

In its report published Thursday, that panel found that Colombia had indeed failed to fully comply with the earlier ruling, potentially opening the door for Brussels to win the right to retaliate.

“We recommend that Colombia bring its measures into conformity with its obligations under the Anti-Dumping Agreement,” the panel said in its ruling.

The case has moved forward under a temporary system set up by a number of countries in 2020 after a US-provoked collapse of the WTO’s appeals body.

Washington, which had accused the WTO appeals panel of overreach, blocked the appointment of new judges, leaving it without the quorum of three needed to hear cases due to mandatory retirements.

The frozen fries dispute between the EU and Colombia was the first trade conflict to go before the temporary body.

AFP