Spain applauds the WTO decision and asks the US to remove its tariffs on Spanish black olives

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has just published the Final Report of the Panel constituted by the European Commission's complaint filed by the Government of Spain against the trade defence measures applied in the USA on Spanish black olives. The report finds inconsistencies in this area and therefore calls for the removal of the charges on Spanish black olives as anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures.

For the Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, this decision "is excellent news because we have always argued that the anti-subsidy measures against Spanish black olives are totally unjustified and this has been ratified by the WTO itself".

Furthermore, the Trade Minister pointed out that this is "a big step towards reaching a definitive solution with the US government to eliminate these measures that are doing so much damage to the export of Spanish black olives. We will continue to work with ASEMESA and the other associations to defend the interests of Spanish olive growers and we will use all the means at our disposal to put an end to these tariffs".

The report concludes that the US measures are inconsistent with WTO rules and therefore recommends that they be brought into conformity with the US obligations under the GATT 1994 agreement and the WTO anti-dumping and subsidies and countervailing agreements.

This ruling backs up the EU's arguments to the WTO Panel, to which it should be added that the procedure has also been questioned by the US Court of International Trade itself in the case brought by Spanish exporters to that body.

Spanish black olives dispute

In June 2017, the competent US authorities, the Department of Commerce (DoC) and the International Trade Commission (ITC), initiated an anti-dumping and an anti-subsidy investigation affecting imports of black olives originating in Spain. As a result of these investigations, on 1 August 2018, the US imposed anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures as it considered the subsidies on this production as unfair competition.

These measures have had a significant impact on Spain's exports to the US over the last three years, since, taking 2017 as a reference year (approximately $70 million), they have fallen by more than 70% since then.

In January 2019, in view of the irregularities in the investigation procedure followed by the US administration and the questioning of CAP aid, the European Commission, at the request of the Government of Spain, decided to request consultations with the US to the World Trade Organization and, as these were unsuccessful, in June of the same year the Special Group (Panel) was established.

Non official translation