Nishimura & Asahi Successfully Exempts Lam Khang’s Stainless Steel Cold-rolled Flat Products From Extended EU Countervailing Duties
Nishimura & Asahi Brussels is happy to announce that our trade team has secured an unprecedented settlement with the Commission before the EU Courts to exempt our client Lam Khang, a Vietnamese exporting producer of stainless steel cold-rolled flat products, from extended EU countervailing duties (see Case T-334/24 - Order of 27 January 2025). Our team brought an action for annulment before the EU General Court against the Commission's decision to extend the countervailing duties applicable to imports from Indonesia to imports from Lam Khang in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/1268 in August 2024. The team claimed that the Commission had acted in breach of the anti-circumvention provisions in the Basic Anti-Subsidy Regulation (Articles 23(3) and 23(6)) by considering the stainless-steel cold-rolled flat products produced by Lam Khang still benefited from subsidies granted to Indonesian stainless-steel cold-rolled flat products. In particular, the team claimed that the Commission committed a factual error in its analysis of certain evidence provided during the investigation.
Through a settlement offer from the Commission, it acknowledged its error and agreed to exempt Lam Khang from the extended countervailing duties before the EU General Court could issue its judgment. This was eventually actioned in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/3201. It means that EU importers of Lam Khang's products will be reimbursed for any anti-circumvention duties paid and will not be subject to any future duties. Meanwhile, Lam Khang's competitors will be subject to the extended duties, representing a big commercial advantage for Lam Khang.
The Nishimura & Asahi team advising Lam Khang was led by partners Benoit Servais and Victor Crochet, supported by Elyse Knellert.
People
With regard to EU law, Victor advises governments and corporations on how to navigate the intricacies of EU regulations with a particular focus on assisting clients impact the legislative developments of new regulations and comply with them. Victor also assists companies and governments in trade remedy investigations. He has advised clients in over fifty anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguard investigations, successfully obtaining no or low duties for exporters in several instances. Furthermore, Victor has extensive experience in litigating before the Court of Justice of the European Union where he has successfully challenged several measures adopted by the EU institutions.
Turning to international economic law, Victor assists governments in WTO proceedings before panels and the Appellate Body and other appeal arrangements. His experience also includes advising governments and multinational corporations on a variety of economic policy matters such as providing legal opinions regarding the legality of measures adopted by the EU as well as third countries under international trade and investment law. Finally, Victor often assists governments with international trade and investment negotiations by helping them develop persuasive arguments during negotiations and ensure compliance with agreed upon rules.
Victor also teaches part of the course on international trade law at Cambridge University.
With regard to EU law, Benoit has been involved in more than 160 EU anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations since 1992 for clients from around the world. He has also successfully represented clients before the Court of Justice in the European Union in landmark trade-related disputes. Benoit also acts for EU exporting producers in anti-dumping investigations initiated by third countries and represents domestic producers in third country in anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations initiated by these third countries. Benoit is the main contributor in the standard work of reference in the field of EU trade law.