International measures include promoting EU standards globally and subsequently infu encing the L ondon Metals e x changes to develop a new price inde x for raw materials that meet higher ethical and environmental standards There is an urgent need for the EU to tak e up the issues of illegal dumping and subsidies more strongly in international platforms lik e theWT O and G20commensurate to its weight as the world s largest mark et and trading block In essence the EU could advocate forstrengthened rules to address mark etdis torting subsidies including indirect industrial subsidies in the form of tax cuts crosssub sidisation cheap sovereign loans to stateowned enterprises andor infated procurement prices paid by local public authorities Necessary reforms need to be pursued such as the improvement of the scope and implementation of relevant WT O rules and commitment to the P aris A greement in the conte xt of free trade agreements formally recognizing China as a nonmark et economy and as concerns China shifting the burden of proof within the WT O from importing countries to China to show that it has not provided unfair subsidies China s own accession protocol to the WT O in 2001 accepts the provision of alternative method ologies to calculate countervailing duties 282 Another option could be to adda special tax to ofset the advantages Chinese SOEs derive from the nature of the Chinese economic system The idea would be to set it as equal to the countervailing duty assessed on support ed Chinese e xports to the west As mentioned in Chapter 32 1 the EU does not have free trade agreements FT As with any of its top nonferrous metals trading partners and China FT As could provide a reliable framework in which theEU may possibly agree on standards of production in the case of sensitive industriesstrengthen chapters on social rights to a mandatory enforcement sim ilar to the US and address the circumvention of import duties through the intentional use of wrong trade codes In the meantime theEU needs to step upcreate bilateral dialogues with its k ey trade partners for nonferrous metals and industrial decarbonisation Both FT As and bilateral dialoguescould help sectors promote and jointly develop technological innovations ande xport e xpertise in recovery of materialswith third countries Drawing up a trade strategy targetingemerging mark ets and their growing demand would also be useful In the case of confict minerals more can be done to ensure coordination between EU and its member states national trade agencies and initiatives to ensure the control of origin at the EU s borders 283 P olitically strengthened diplomacy both at the EU level and at the UN would also be needed to reduce political instability in emerging mark ets 282 T ran Hung 2019 283 In order to address the concerns over security of supply and other aspects regarding sourcing from the DRC the Cobalt Institute has developed a new tool called CIRAF Cobalt Industry R esponsible Assessment Framework The CIRAF tool provides a good practicebased framework that allows the Cobalt producers to identify and respond to core risk s relating to Human Rights and for Community Engagement and in due course also the risk s to the Environment and Occupational Health Safety OHS The new CIRAF has been rolled out for use by the cobaltproducing companies and is being e xtended to downstream users in the cobalt value chain as well as other stak eholders in the metals industry Source Cobalt Institute 2019a infrastructure for sector coupling and derisking the business model by ensuring longterm contracts for heat purchases by the residential sector Similarly as mentioned before e n s u r ing the electrointensive metals producers can maximise their role in ancillary services to the power grid and power generation will facilitate the climate transition of the electricity system 85 Assertive EU trade and competition policies Thus far the EU has largely strived to maintain an open and fair mark et In order to maintain a level playing feld and reciprocal mark et access there is a need to strik e a balance be tween defensive and more assertive trade measures As the world s largest consumer mark et the EU could frst strengthen its standards and ensure that imported materials and products comply with the same standards as those e x tracted or produced in Europe 279 Harmonisation of EU level of customs clearance practices in harbours as well as the validation methods within EU regulations for the classifcation of metals and alloys beyond liquids and powders would prove useful Public procurement is a potent tool which the EU could use to support the nonferrous metals sector and increase uptak e of metals produced with the least carbon footprint 280 T o tackle growing international protectionism the EU should develop a more globally focused competition policy that look s at global mark et distortions not just intraEU distor tions With regards to trade the EU could better regulate single mark et accessincluding reciprocal mark et access e g through stronger public procurement rules while utilising e f fective defence instruments in the case of unfair trade practises This includes identifying and addressing distortive efects of foreign companies including state ownership and fnancing on the EU internal mark et reducingeliminating import tarifs and abolishing the lesserduty rule in case of raw materials distortions which is in any case a WT O requirement 281 It is important that the EU is more forceful and diligent in using the e xisting trade defence instruments available For antidumping cases the Commission need to have more concern on a serious and immediate threat of injury of its industry It is often too late if injury has to be fully proven before actions are tak en Other actions could include better coordination of national trade agencies and initiatives across Member S tates the creation of a R aw Materials S trategy including e xport of waste and scrap and a stronger investment policy 279 JRC 2017b 280 EPSC W yns et al 2019 281 JRC 2017b whereby the rate of the duties ofsetting dumping is based on the injury when it is lower than the dumping margin MET ALS IN A CLIMA TE NEUTRAL EUROPE A 2050 BL UEPRINT 78