The European Commission on 7th March Published,in Effect,Its Detailed Action Plan

Having agreed with China the "reasonable period" for bringing its anti-dumping procedures into conformance with the WTO panel ruling, the European Commission on 7th March published, in effect, its detailed action plan. A joint communication from China and the EU had already confirmed agreement that the "reasonable period" for the EU to bring its anti-dumping procedures into compliance with the July 2011 WTO ruling, should end on 12th October 2012. A routine part of the WTO dispute resolution process the period announced was broadly as expected. More significantly, on 7th March the Commission published a notice (Official Journal 2012 C66/29) initiating a review and setting out how it intends taking account of the WTO ruling. Six specific action areas correlate to WTO rulings against the EU. The first addresses whether Chinese exporters should have been eligible for individual treatment, which might have resulted a specific tariff rate being applied to them. Nine companies did have specific rates applied. Nearly one hundred other co-operating companies, not accorded individual treatment, had a 77.5% tariff applied to their products and all other companies were subject to 85% ADD. Chinese exporting producers that consider they were discouraged from requesting individual treatment have 30 days from the date the notice was published to apply for a review. Specific criteria for application are spelt out and it is made clear a review will only be initiated if a "duly substantiated application" is received. As a result of a review measures may be "repealed, amended, or maintained" in order to comply with the WTO rulings – the notice emphasises that a review could result in the level of measures decreasing or increasing. The Commission also reserves the right to finalise a review once initiated, even if the applicant decides to withdraw. Applications for review will be processed within "a reasonable period of time". Clearly it is too early to judge how many applications made or reviews granted and the notice provides no timescale for concluding what could prove to be a major workload for the Commission. The Commission will "re-examine the definition of the Union industry and the level of representativity of that industry and ascertain whether the percentage of production of that industry out of the total estimated production represents a major proportion in the sense of the WTO Antidumping Agreement".The review will take account of valid submissions received from EU producers. The Commission commits to revise its injury assessment by excluding imports for which no dumping was found, again disclosing its results to the already registered interested parties. It will also reassess whether dumped imports have caused injury to the Union industry taking into account the EU industry's specific export performance instead of the overall export statistical data reported by Eurostat. A disclosure will be made to interested parties giving "more precise information regarding the product characteristics which were found to be pertinent in the determination of the normal value that was used in the comparison with the product concerned". Interested parties will be invited to comment and those comments further disclosed to all interested parties that participated in the original investigation. The Commission will ask two EU producers to explain why confidential information was "not susceptible of non-confidential summary". It will also disclose the Eurostat data on total EU production of fasteners as originally presented. The notice is explicit that, in line with the WTO enabling regulation, any measures adopted will not have retroactive effect. Source:chinafastener.com