(61)

However, it is considered that the existing provision on sampling (Article 17 of the basic Regulation), fully encompasses the situation of companies claiming MET. Indeed, whether it be in market economy countries or in economies in transition, exporters are by the nature of the sampling exercise denied individual assessment and the conclusions reached for the sample are extended to them. Article 17 of the basic Regulation sets out a general method to deal with situations where an individual examination is no longer possible due to the high number of companies involved i.e. the use of a representative sample. There is no reason why the sampling method could not equally be applied to the situation where the high number of companies involved includes a high number of companies requesting MET/IT. Like in any other sampling case, a weighted average of all sampled companies is established, regardless of the methodology applied for the dumping calculation in respect of each company as a result of the MET/IT assessment. MET/IT should thus not prevent the application of normal sampling techniques. The key rationale of sampling is to balance administrative necessities to allow a case assessment in due time and within the margin of mandatory deadlines, with an individualised analysis to the best extent possible. Finally, it is recalled that the number of requests for MET in this case was so substantial that an individual examination of the requests — as sometimes done in other cases — was administratively impossible. Therefore, it was considered reasonable to apply equally to all non-sampled companies the weighted average margin resulting from all the companies in the sample with no distinction being made between companies obtaining MET/IT or not. It has also been alleged that the dumping calculation was insufficiently reliable because sampling of MET claims had been used. This claim has to be rejected. First of all, there was no sampling of MET claims but sampling of exporting producers. Secondly, the provisions on sampling are designed to ensure a sufficiently reliable determination as to whether or not there is dumping in a case of a large number of exporting producers. Thirdly, in cases where exporting producers have also submitted MET claims there is no reason to conclude that the use of the routinely applied sampling technique would lead to an insufficiently reliable determination. Indeed, it runs counter the very concept of sampling to argue that because of the fact that (non-sampled) exporters should be classified as either MET or non-MET, a sample of such a population would per se be unrepresentative. As in any other anti-dumping investigation, the individual situation of exporters is never identical. Important differences can exist between producers and sampling can nevertheless be applied. Fourthly, the classification of a company as being non-MET means only that the normal value cannot be established on the basis of the company's own data but that a viable alternative has to be used. However, to resort to viable alternatives has also to be done in other important areas of the dumping determination, see e.g. Article 2(1) and Article 2(6) of the basic Regulation. Fifthly, the representativity of the sample is further underlined by the fact that the governments of the exporting countries themselves have proposed the vast majority of the companies chosen in the sample. In other words, they themselves have considered these samples as representative for the totality of their exporting producers.