(4)

Article 7 is amended as follows: (a) paragraph 1 is replaced by the following: ‘1. Provisional duties may be imposed if: (a) proceedings have been initiated in accordance with Article 5; (b) a notice has been given to that effect and interested parties have been given an adequate opportunity to submit information and make comments in accordance with Article 5(10); (c) a provisional affirmative determination has been made of dumping and consequent injury to the Union industry; and (d) the Union interest calls for intervention to prevent such injury. The provisional duties shall be imposed no earlier than 60 days from the initiation of the proceedings and normally not later than seven months, but in any event not later than eight months, from the initiation of the proceedings. Provisional duties shall not be imposed within three weeks of the information being sent to interested parties in accordance Article 19a (period of pre-disclosure). The provision of such information shall not prejudice any subsequent related decision that may be taken by the Commission. The Commission shall review by 9 June 2020, whether a substantial rise in imports has occurred during the period of pre-disclosure and whether, if such rise has occurred, it has caused additional injury to the Union industry, despite the measures that the Commission might have taken based on Article 14(5a) and Article 9(4). It shall rely in particular on data collected on the basis of Article 14(6) and any relevant information at its disposal. The Commission shall adopt a delegated act in accordance with Article 23a to amend the duration of the period of pre-disclosure to two weeks in the case of a substantial rise of imports that have caused additional injury and to four weeks where this is not the case. The Commission shall make public on its website its intention to impose provisional duties, including information on the possible duty rates, at the same time when it provides interested parties with the information pursuant to Article 19a.’; (b) the following paragraphs are inserted: ‘2a. When examining whether a duty lower than the margin of dumping would be sufficient to remove injury, the Commission shall take into account whether there are distortions on raw materials with regard to the product concerned. For the purposes of this paragraph, distortions on raw materials consist of the following measures: dual pricing schemes, export taxes, export surtax, export quota, export prohibition, fiscal tax on exports, licensing requirements, minimum export price, value added tax (VAT) refund reduction or withdrawal, restriction on customs clearance point for exporters, qualified exporters list, domestic market obligation, captive mining if the price of a raw material is significantly lower as compared to prices in the representative international markets. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 23a to amend this Regulation by adding further distortions on raw materials on to the list referred to in the second subparagraph of this paragraph, if the OECD “Inventory on export restrictions on industrial raw materials”, or any OECD database which replaces this inventory, identifies other types of measures. The investigation shall cover any distortion on raw materials identified in the second subparagraph of this paragraph, for the existence of which the Commission has sufficient evidence pursuant to Article 5. For the purpose of this Regulation, a single raw material, whether unprocessed or processed, including energy, for which a distortion is found, must account for not less than 17 % of the cost of production of the product concerned. For the purpose of this calculation, an undistorted price of the raw material as established in representative international markets shall be used. 2b. Where the Commission, on the basis of all the information submitted, can clearly conclude that it is in the Union’s interest to determine the amount of the provisional duties in accordance with paragraph 2a of this Article, paragraph 2 of this Article shall not apply. The Commission shall actively seek information from interested parties enabling it to determine whether paragraph 2 or 2a of this Article shall apply. In this regard, the Commission shall examine all pertinent information such as spare capacities in the exporting country, competition for raw materials and the effect on supply chains for Union companies. In the absence of cooperation the Commission may conclude that it is in accordance with the Union interest to apply paragraph 2a of this Article. When carrying out the Union-interest test in accordance with Article 21, special consideration shall be given to this matter. 2c. When the injury margin is calculated on the basis of a target price, the target profit used shall be established taking into account factors such as the level of profitability before the increase of imports from the country under investigation, the level of profitability needed to cover full costs and investments, research and development (R&D) and innovation, and the level of profitability to be expected under normal conditions of competition. Such profit margin shall not be lower than 6 %. 2d. When establishing the target price, the actual cost of production of the Union industry, which results from multilateral environmental agreements, and protocols thereunder, to which the Union is a party, or from International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions listed in Annex Ia to this Regulation, shall be duly reflected. Moreover, future costs, which are not covered in paragraph 2c of this Article, which result from those agreements and conventions, and which the Union industry will incur during the period of the application of the measure pursuant to Article 11(2), shall be taken into account.’.