Dear Commission President Von der Leyen,
Dear Executive Vice Presidents Vestager and Dombrovskis,
For decades, the European Commission is fully aware that European shipyards suffer from a unique legal gap in trade defence instruments. Since ships are not imported into the EU customs territory, shipyards – in contrast to other manufacturers of goods – cannot benefit from trade defence protection, such as anti-dumping measures. Already in 1988, the European Commission concluded that “
The Commission could not refuse to allow this industry the trade defence weapons available to other industries and it will consider introducing a mechanism for a levy to offset the damage caused to European shipbuilding.” (2)