Once the UK has left the European Union on 31 January 2020, it will operate its own independent trade policy including with regards to trade defence, a sector in which the UK has traditionally been reluctant to act. The UK will have to decide which of the 113 EU trade remedies currently in place (95 anti-dumping measures, 15 countervailing measures and 3 safeguard measures) will be maintained or varied and which will be revoked.

During the implementation period, currently set to last until 31 December 2020, all EU trade remedies, including those adopted by the Commission during the implementation period, will continue to apply to imports into the UK.

Once the UK has left the European Union on 31 January 2020, it will operate its own independent trade policy including with regards to trade defence, a sector in which the UK has traditionally been reluctant to act. The UK will have to decide which of the 113 EU trade remedies currently in place (95 anti-dumping measures, 15 countervailing measures and 3 safeguard measures) will be maintained or varied and which will be revoked.

During the implementation period, currently set to last until 31 December 2020, all EU trade remedies, including those adopted by the Commission during the implementation period, will continue to apply to imports into the UK.

MEASURES "OF INTEREST TO THE UK"

Following a consultation to examine the relevance of the EU trade remedies for the UK economy, in February 2019 the UK government identified 44 EU measures that were "of interest to the UK".

There were 63 measures that did not meet the pre-requisites (i.e. UK producers accounting for a defined market share expressing an interest in the measures continuing) and these measures will no longer apply at the end of the implementation period.2

The 44 measures identified as "being of interest to the UK" will be subject to a transition review by the Trade Remedies Investigations Directorate (TRID) (until the establishment of the Trade Remedies Authority (TRA)) to determine whether they should continue and at what level. Until the completion of this review, measures will be maintained at the level initially set by the EU Commission.

EU measures adopted before the end of the implementation period which are not reviewed by the TRID during the initial consultations will be subject to the same test to determine whether they are of interest to the UK.

UPDATE ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TRADE REMEDIES AUTHORITY

The creation of the TRA is one of the elements of the government's proposed 2019-2020 Trade Bill, announced in the Queen's Speech on 19 December 2019. The TRA was supposed to be created by enacting the 2017-2019 Trade Bill but it failed to pass through the legislative process before the end of the last parliamentary session. The date for the second reading of the new Bill is not yet defined and it may be some time before it is enacted. In the meantime, the functions of the TRA continue to be carried out by the TRID within the Department for International Trade (DIT) and it will be the TRID which will handle the transition reviews until such time as the TRA is formally established.

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