McGuireWoods’ Brussels international trade team won one of their two claims before the High Court of the Eurasian Economic Union in Minsk representing the Chinese steel giant Angang Steel in a challenge of an anti-dumping order of the Eurasian Union authority (Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan) against imports of polymer-coated steel sheets from China. The partial win outcome reversed existing case law that had previously approved a dumping margin calculation methodology that inflated by 1.03 percent the duty paid at the Eurasian Union’s border.
After two hearings in Minsk in 2014, the court obliged the Russian investigating authority to review its findings and decrease the duty rate imposed on Angang Steel. It is noted that the investigating authority defended all major Russian steelmakers (Severstal, Novolipetsk and Magnitogorsk).
McGuireWoods lawyers Vassilis Akritidis, Yongqing Bao and Yves Melin worked on this case together with two litigators from Squire Patton Boggs’ Moscow office.
“This win represents substantial cost savings for our client and its importer in Russia and came after a long and fair trial before the Minsk High Court,” Vassilis said.
“I am truly delighted by the depth of our international trade team’s capabilities, which won within a challenging linguistic and legal environment. Angang Steel is delighted and we are now contemplating a WTO action by China against Russia for the second claim that we lost.”