On January 27, 2017, a panel of the World Trade Organization published a report which found illegal the Russian anti-dumping measures imposed in May 2013 on the importation from Italy, Germany and Turkey, of light commercial vehicles.
The panel agreed with the EU on all procedural claims and recognized many errors with the analysis drawn up by the Russian authorities in order to justify the measures concerned. In fact, Russian authorities, by excluding certain domestic producers from their calculation, based their analysis of the damage on unrealistic figures.
Moreover, while assessing the effects of the alleged dumping, the authorities disregarded the overcapacity in the Russian LCV sector, which at the time stood at seven times what was really sold on the Russian market.
The anti-dumping measures at stake concern light commercial vehicles between 2.8 to 3.5 tons in weight, van-type bodies and diesel engines with a cylinder capacity not exceeding 3.000cm3, designed for the transport of cargo of up to two tons or for the combined transport of cargo and passengers.
These measures were adopted by the Eurasian Economic Union and currently apply on imports to all its countries (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia), and, once removed, there will be no anti-dumping duty on imports from EU member states into any of the members of the Eurasian Economic Union.
The case, anyway, concerned Russia in particular, being, in 2014, the only member of the Eurasian Economic Union bound by WTO rules.
Each party has 60 days to challenge the WTO decision. Conversely, Russia will have to eliminate the anti-dumping measures on light commercial vehicles imported by the EU.
