Keywords

Summary



Keywords

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1 . Common commercial policy - Protection against dumping practices - Application of the Community rules - Obligation for the Community to align its practice on that of one of its major trading partners - None

( Council Regulation No 2176/84 )

2 . Common commercial policy - Protection against dumping practices - Dumping margin - Determination of the normal value - Price charged in the ordinary course of trade - Taking account of the specific features of the commercial organization of the manufacturer concerned - Legality

( Council Regulation No 2176/84, Art . 2 ( 3 ) ( a ) )

3 . Common commercial policy - Protection against dumping practices - Dumping margin - Miscalculation - Effect on validity of the anti-dumping duty - No effect on account of the fixing of the rate of duty at a level of injury which is below the real dumping margin

( Council Regulation No 2176/84, Art . 13 )

4 . Common commercial policy - Protection against dumping practices - Institutions' power of assessment - Breach of the principle of legal certainty - None

( Council Regulation No 2176/84 )

5 . Common commercial policy - Protection against dumping practices - Injury - Determination on the basis of a comparison between import prices and the prices of Community products calculated irrespective of fall in the latter as a result of dumping - Legality - Condition

( Council Regulation No 2176/84, Art . 4 )

6 . Common commercial policy - Protection against dumping practices - Assessment of Community interests - Imposition of anti-dumping duties leaving intact the problems of Community manufacturers not connected with dumping - Legality

( Council Regulation No 2176/84, Art . 12 ( 1 ) )

Summary

1 . The attitude of a trading partner, even a major partner, of the Community with regard to protection against dumping practices does not suffice to oblige the Community to follow the same course when applying its own rules in such matters .

2 . Under the procedure for calculating anti-dumping duties, the Community institutions are entitled to take as the normal value of the product the resale price charged on the domestic market of the country of manufacture by the distribution company related to the manufacturer concerned where that company, which the manufacturer controls financially, is entrusted with tasks that are normally the responsibility of an internal sales department of the manufacturing organization .

The division of production and sales activities within a group made up of legally distinct companies can in no way alter the fact that the group is a single economic entity which carries on in that way activities that are in other cases carried on by what is in legal terms as well a single entity .

3 . A manufacturer upon whom anti-dumping duties have been imposed cannot contest them on the ground that they were calculated taking into account an exaggerated dumping margin provided that the rate of duty has been fixed at a level of injury which is below both the dumping margin incorrectly adopted and the real dumping margin .

4 . In several respects the rules on protection against dumping practices laid down by Regulation No 2176/84 leave a measure of discretion to the Community institutions, in particular the Commission in an anti-dumping investigation, as regards fixing a provisional duty and proposing a definitive duty to the Council, and the fact that the Commission exercises that discretion without explaining in detail and in advance the criteria which it intends to apply in every specific situation does not constitute a breach of the principle of legal certainty .

5 . Under the procedure for calculating anti-dumping duties, the Community institutions are entitled to determine the injury suffered by Community manufacturers on the basis of a comparison between the prices of imported products, on the one hand, and the prices of similar Community products not at their real level but at the level which they would have reached if there had been no dumping, on the other, where at the time of comparison the prices of the Community products have already been subject over a long period to downward pressure leading to their decline precisely on account of the dumping .

6 . The imposition of anti-dumping duties cannot be challenged on the grounds that those duties leave intact the problems created for Community manufacturers by competition from products imported from non-member countries without being dumped or that they lead to the protection of inefficient producers since the fact that a Community producer is facing difficulties attributable in part to causes other than the dumping is not a reason for depriving that producer of all protection against the injury caused by the dumping .