The report presented by the Commission to the European Parliament regarding the activities of the European Union on anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguard measures during 2011 shows that these activities were increased on all fronts during that period. During 2011 the European Commission also initiated a process of review of the Trade Defence Instruments currently in force, and paid special attention to SMEs' conditions to use those instruments.

The Report form the Commission regarding EU's 2011 activities on anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguard activities, reviews the essential elements of the actions taken by the European Commission during this period. The report points out that Trade Defence Instruments in force in 2011 affected in fact quite a small part of EU's imports. This highlights the very regulated employment of these instruments the Union makes.

In the field of modernization of Trade Defence Instruments (TDI), the Commission launched an initiative in October 2011 in order to improve the current system. This revision would take into account the evolution of the economic and commercial situation as well as the difficulties faced by companies in the current context. In order to do that, the Commission launched a public consultation early 2012, whose results along with various reports and contacts with stakeholders, will inform the legislative proposal to be presented by the end of 2012. Special attention was paid to the difficulties faced by SMEs when using Trade Defence Instruments, which resulted in a document with a series of concrete actions for improvement and the creation of the Trade Defence Helpdesk for SMEs.

According to the report, both the number of cases initiated and the definitive measures imposed increased in 2011, although provisional measures declined compared with the previous period. In the case of the reviews, the report concludes that despite being down nearly by one-sixth, they are still an important part of Commission's work.

During 2011 the European Union analysed six requests for country-wide market economy status (MES), including the one presented by China. In this context, the Commission analysed the progress made by China in the field of intellectual property rights and anti-monopoly law. In the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO), China filed in 2011 its first action against the EU since joining the organization.