Cleary Gottlieb won an important victory for Ajinomoto Foods Europe when the European Commission initiated on September 5 one of only two anti-dumping proceedings opened so far this year. The proceeding, which followed a petition filed by Cleary Gottlieb on behalf of Ajinomoto, is aimed against imports of monosodium glutamate (“MSG”) originating in China, and is an important step for the protection of Ajinomoto’s European production of MSG. Ajinomoto operates Europe’s only MSG production facilities, in Nesle, France, some 100 km north of Paris.
More importantly, the Commission decision marks the end of an eight-month implicit moratorium on the initiation of anti-dumping proceedings in Europe. The MSG proceeding is one of the two first proceedings opened in 2007, and was based on strong and convincing evidence about the existence of dumping and injury. Cleary Gottlieb had also handled (for the firm’s client Tosoh Hellas) one of the last proceedings opened prior to the moratorium.