EU to Extend Trade Defense Rules to Continental Shelf, Exclusive Economic Zones

The EU plans to extend its antidumping and countervailing duty collections to the continental shelf and exclusive economic zones of the member states, the European Commission said in a July 3 news release. "Until now, EU customs rules only allowed trade defence measures to be applied to goods imported into the customs territory of the Union," it said. "The rules did not apply to goods brought to the continental shelf or exclusive economic zones of EU Member States, for instance for the exploitation of natural resources such as extraction of oil and gas and off-shore windmills." The new regulations are aligned with major EU trading partners, including the U.S., India and Brazil, it said. Exclusive economic zones are sea zones "over which a state has special rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources" and can be beyond a state's territorial waters, it said. The continental shelf is "the shelf extending from the coastline of the state to a drop-off point in the ocean," the EC said. The EU member states will have four months to "put in place the necessary administrative procedures," the EC said.