EU hails WTO ‘major win’ in frozen fries spat with Colombia

The European Union welcomed a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling Wednesday (21 December) against Colombia’s imposition of duties on frozen fries from three EU countries.

“This is a major win for European exporters of fries, who were frozen out of the Colombian market,” the EU’s trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said.

The WTO had agreed for a group of experts to mediate in the dispute, which concerned anti-dumping customs fees imposed against fries from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.

Anti-dumping measures are permitted by the Geneva-based WTO, but only under certain conditions and are often subject to challenges.

But Brussels argued the measures announced by Bogota in November 2018 were completely unjustified and harmed European companies.

Commission takes Colombia to WTO over 'French fries' dispute

The European Commission announced on Monday (14 October) that it will challenge at the World Trade Organisation the tariffs imposed by Colombia on frozen French fries, which the EU executive sees as “completely unjustified”.

The EU, in a written statement, called the decision “a win for European producers whose exports to Colombia of well over EUR20 million were affected by the Colombian duties”.

The ruling, which followed an appeal by Colombia, was resolved under a temporary system set up by a number of countries in 2020 after a US-provoked collapse of the WTO appeals body.

Washington, which had accused the WTO appeals panel of serious overreach, blocked the appointment of new judges, leaving it without the quorum of three needed to hear cases due to mandatory retirements.

The frozen fries dispute between the EU and Colombia was the first trade conflict to go before the multi-party interim appeal arbitration arrangement (MPIA).

Read more with Euractiv

Russian gold removed from some Western funds after Ukraine invasion

Hidden inside high-security bank vaults in London, Zurich and New York, billions of dollars' worth of gold of Russian origin has quietly changed hands in recent months in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.