REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the exercise of the power to adopt delegated acts conferred on the Commission pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2018/196 of the European Parliament and the Council of 7 February 2018 on additional custom duties on imports of certain products originating in the United States of America
Date: 2019-03-05
Institutions: Directorate-General for Trade and Economic Security, European Commission
Subjects: United States, anti-dumping duty, common customs tariff, countervailing charge, customs duties, delegated legislation, import (EU), originating product, powers of the institutions (EU), suspension of customs duties

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  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 5.3.2019  COM(2019) 118 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the exercise of the power to adopt delegated acts conferred on the Commission pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2018/196 of the European Parliament and the Council of 7 February 2018 on additional custom duties on imports of certain products originating in the United States of America  
 
 
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

on the exercise of the power to adopt delegated acts conferred on the Commission 
pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2018/196 of the European Parliament and the Council of 7 
February 2018 on additional custom duties on imports of certain products originating in 
the United States of America  

I. 

Introduction 

In  2018,  the  European  Union  (EU)  adopted  Regulation  (EU)  2018/1961  of  the  European 
Parliament and of the Council of 7 February 2018 on additional custom duties on imports of 
certain  products  originating  in  the  United  States  of  America  (“the  EU  Regulation” 
hereinafter). The Regulation entered into force on 8 March 2018. 

The  EU  Regulation  is  a  codification  of  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  673/2005  establishing 
additional  custom  duties  on  imports  of  certain  products  originating  in  the  United  States  of 
America.  This  Council  Regulation  sets  out  the  procedure  for  adjusting  the  annual  level  of 
retaliation applied in the WTO dispute on the United States’ Continued Dumping and Subsidy 
Offset  Act  of  2000  (‘CDSOA’,  or  the  Byrd  Amendment).The  CDSOA  mandates  the  yearly 
distribution of the anti-dumping and countervailing duties collected during the previous fiscal 
year  to  US  companies.  The  CDSOA  was  found  incompatible  with  the  United  States'  WTO 
obligations in January 2003.  

Given that the United States failed to bring itself in compliance with its obligations under the 
WTO agreements, the EU was authorised to  impose an additional import duty above bound 
customs duties on a list of US products covering on a yearly basis a total value of trade not 
exceeding the amount of 72% of the CDSOA disbursement from duties collected on imports 
from the EU for the most recent year for which data are available. Since 1 May 2005, the EU 
applies  an ad valorem  additional customs duty on imports of certain  products  originating in 
the  United  States  on  a  yearly  basis,  adjusting  the  level  of  retaliation  proportionately  to  the 
amount  disbursed  from  duties  collected  on  EU  products  pursuant  to  the  most  recent 
distribution. A Commission delegated regulation laying down the revised duty rate is adopted 
before 1st of May of every calendar year.  

Following  the  codification  of  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  673/2005,  the  power  to  adopt 
delegated  acts  was  conferred  upon  the  Commission  for  a  period  of  five  years  from  20 
February 2014. Also, the Commission is under an obligation to draw up a report in respect of 
the delegation of power no later than nine months before the end of the five year period.  

II. 

Legal Basis 

In line with Article 4(2) of the Regulation (EU) 2018/196 of the European Parliament and of 
the Council of 7 February 2018, the Commission shall draw up a report to the Council and the 
European Parliament regarding the respect of the delegation of power.   

1 OJ L 44, 16.2.2018, p. 1. 

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III. 

Exercise of the Delegation 

The EU Regulation confers powers upon the Commission in order to implement some of the 
provisions of that Regulation in particular: 

- 

- 

- 

- 

as regards the calculation of the level of nullification or impairment equal to 72 % of 
the  amount  of  disbursements  under  the  CDSOA  relating  to  anti-dumping  and 
countervailing  duties  paid  on  imports  from  the  Union  for  the  most  recent  year  for 
which data are available at that time, as published by the United States' authorities; 

as regards the adaptation of Annexes I and II of the EU Regulation when the level of 
suspension increases by adding products listed in Annex II to Annex I; 

as regards the adaptation of Annexes I and II of the EU Regulation when the level of 
suspension decreases by removing products listed in Annex I, in the order specified by 
the EU Regulation; 

as regards the modification of the rate of the additional import duty, when the level of 
suspension cannot be adjusted to the level of nullification or impairment by adding or 
removing products from the list in Annex I. 

As  the  EU  Regulation  entered  into  force  on  8  March  2018,  no  delegated  acts  have  been 
adopted so far. We will duly inform the European Parliament and the Council as soon as the 
2019 delegated regulation is adopted by the College. 

However, since 20 February 2014 the Commission has adopted four (4) delegated acts based 
on  the  Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  673/2005  (the  predecessor  of  the  EU  Regulation)  as 
follows: 

-  Commission  Delegated  Regulation  (EU)  2015/675  of  26  February  2015  amending 
Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  673/2005  establishing  additional  customs  duties  on 
imports of certain products originating in the United States of America establishing an 
additional import duty of 1.5% on the products listed in Annex I; 

-  Commission  Delegated  Regulation  (EU)  2016/654  of  26  February  2016  amending 
Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  673/2005  establishing  additional  customs  duties  on 
imports of certain products originating in the United States of America establishing an 
additional import duty of 0.45% on the products listed in Annex I; 

-  Commission  Delegated  Regulation  (EU)  2017/750  of  24  February  2017  amending 
Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  673/2005  establishing  additional  customs  duties  on 
imports of certain products originating in the United States of America establishing an 
additional import duty of 4.3% on the products listed in Annex I; and 

-  Commission  Delegated  Regulation  (EU)  2018/632  of  19  February  2018  amending 
Council  Regulation  (EC)  No  673/2005  establishing  additional  customs  duties  on 
imports of certain products originating in the United States of America establishing an 
additional import duty of 0.3% on the products listed in Annex I. 

The  power  to  adopt  each  of  the  delegated  acts  listed  above  was  exercised  in  order  to 
accurately  adjust  the  yearly  level  of  additional  import  duty  to  the  actual  amount  of 

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nullification  and  impairment  calculated  based  on  the  amount  of  duties  collected  on  EU 
products  in  the  most  recent  yearly  distributions  by  the  United  States  under  the  CDSOA.  In 
each of the above cases, this adjustment led to a modification of the additional applied duty 
rate on the limitative list of products listed in Annex 1 to the EU Regulation.  

IV. 

Conclusions 

The Commission invites the European Parliament and the Council to take note of this report 
in  the  context  of  proper  exercise  by  the  Commission  of  the  powers  delegated  by  the  EU 
Regulation. 

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