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High-profile battles over tariffs continue to place the global fastener industry in the spotlight, Global Fastener News reported. The biggest antidumping duty news came from the World Trade Organization, who's Appellate Body ruled that European Union duties on fasteners from China break international trade rules.

The news was followed by an EU determination to apply circumvention duties on fasteners from Malaysia, whose producers were accused of helping Chinese fastener manufacturers of avoiding the original EU tariffs by transshipment. The World Trade  Organization's Appellate Body ruled that European Union duties on fasteners from China break international trade rules in many cases and should be revised to reflect non-market economy treatment.

The WTO ruling criticized the way the EU assessed antidumping duties on fastener imports from China, affirming China's complaint that the EU unfairly judged China as a non-market economy when it applied duties on fasteners in January 2009.

The Appellate Body, the WTO's highest court, found that the EU discriminates against Chinese exporters compared to exporters from other countries. The decision could force the EU to set individual duties on companies instead of imposing a blanket duty for the whole country. The ruling found that the EU used the wrong method to calculate the amount of alleged dumping and had shown it "impinged upon only 27% of EU production of such fasteners, not a high enough proportion to qualify."

However, the Appellate Body's report made room for aggregation — blanket claims against all producers in a given country — by upholding the principle that "a group of companies whose decision-making is subject to government influence" could be successfully targeted by an anti-dumping case. "It's possible still to consider China as one producer, like China Incorporated," the trade official told Reuters.

The EU adopted 85% antidumping duties on certain fasteners from China in February 2009 after concluding that Chinese producers had flooded the market with fasteners at 30% to 50% below European prices.

China responded by placing five-year antidumping duties of up to 26% on steel fasteners imported from the EU, affecting about EUR140 million (US$240 million) worth of fasteners.