Commission Regulation (EC) No 2385/2002 of 30 December 2002 continuing and amending prior Community surveillance of imports of certain iron and steel products originating in certain third countries
Date: 2002-12-30
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: import, import restriction, iron and steel product, market protection, market supervision, third country

31.12.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

L 358/125

COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 2385/2002

of 30 December 2002

continuing and amending prior Community surveillance of imports of certain iron and steel
products originating in certain third countries

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

quotas and additional duties ranging from 8 % to 30 %
ad valorem.

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 3285/94 (1) of 22
December 1994 on common rules for imports and repealing
Regulation (EC) No 518/94, as last amended by Regulation (EC)
No 2474/2000 (2), and in particular Article 11 thereof,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 519/94 (3) of 7
March 1994 on common rules for imports from certain third
countries and repealing Regulations (EEC) No 1765/82, (EEC)
No 1766/82 and (EEC) No 3420/83, as last amended by Regu-
lation (EC) No 1138/98 (4), and in particular Article 9 thereof,

After consultations with the Advisory Committees,

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

By Regulation (EC) No 76/2002 (5) of 17 January 2002,
the Commission introduced prior Community surveil-
lance of
imports of certain iron and steel products
originating in third countries. That Regulation was
amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 1337/
2002 (6) of 24 July 2002 so as to extend the scope of
the surveillance.

On 6 March 2002, certain Member States informed the
Commission that trends in imports of certain steel prod-
ucts appeared to call for safeguard measures; submitted
information containing the evidence available as deter-
mined on the basis of Article 10 of Regulation (EC) No
3285/94 and Article 8 of Regulation (EC) No 519/94;
and requested the Commission to impose provisional
safeguard measures
safeguard
investigation.

open

and

to

a

(3)

On 20 March 2002,
the United States of America
imposed definitive safeguard measures against a broad
range of imported steel products in the form of tariff

(1) OJ L 319, 31.12.1994, p. 53.
(2) OJ L 286, 11.11.2000, p. 1.
(3) OJ L 67, 10.3.1994, p. 89.
(4) OJ L 159, 3.6.1998, p. 1.
(5) OJ L 16, 18.1.2002, p. 3.
(6) OJ L 195, 24.7.2002, p. 25.

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

On 28 March 2002,
the Commission initiated an
investigation relating to serious injury or threat thereof
to the Community producers of products like or directly
competing with 21 imported steel products.

On the same day, on the basis of information gathered
and verified prior to the initiation, provisional measures
were imposed on 15 of the steel products covered by
the investigation.

By Regulation (EC) No 1694/2002 of 27 September
the Commission, having established that
2002 (7),
increased imports of the seven products specified in
Annex 1(a) were
to the
Community producers,
imposed definitive safeguard
measures against those products in the form of addi-
tional duties payable on imports in excess of the relevant
tariff quotas. Utilisation of these tariff quotas can be
monitored on a daily basis.

causing

serious

injury

By Regulation (EC) No 1695/2002 of 27 September
2002 (8),
the Commission, having established that
increased imports of the 14 products specified in Annex
1(b) were threatening to cause injury to the Community
the
producers, and that
Community to do so, imposed a system of retrospective
surveillance in relation to those 14 products.

it was in the interests of

The aforementioned systems of monitoring of the safe-
guard tariff quotas and retrospective surveillance provide
information as to the origin of only some of the imports
entering the Community market, and do not provide
information as to the prices of those imports. Nor do
they provide information as to the structure of future
trade flows.

The Community's external trade statistics are not avail-
able within the periods established by Commission
Regulation (EC) No 1917/2000 (9), as amended by Regu-
lation (EC) No 1669/2001 (10).

(7) OJ L 261, 28.9.2002, p. 1.
(8) OJ L 261, 28.9.2002, p. 124.
(9) OJ L 229, 9.9.2000, p. 14.
(10) OJ L 224, 21.8.2001, p. 3.

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Official Journal of the European Communities

31.12.2002

(10) However, available import statistics for the steel products specified in Annex 1 show the following

trends, which threaten to cause injury to the Community producers:

(tonnes)

Product type

1999

2000

2001

2002 (1) (6 months)

Flat products

Long products

10 818 943

13 641 836

13 916 538

6 058 977

5 053 766

5 184 421

5 482 925

2 772 014

Tubes and pipes

2 541 117

2 930 406

2 903 729

1 384 322

(1) Only data for the first six months of 2002 is presently available, and it is subject to revision.

(11) Although certain categories of product show some
decline in imports, it must be recalled that a number of
steel products were subject to the EC provisional steel
safeguard measures during part of this period. Further, it
is clear that
the international context could lead to
further diversion of trade to the Community by reason
of the fact that the world steel market remains unsettled
and many countries have taken, or are considering, safe-
guard measures.

(12)

(including Bulgaria, Canada, China,

Indeed, since the imposition of safeguard measures
across a broad range of steel products by the US in
March 2002, the European Community and many coun-
tries
the Czech
Republic, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico
and Poland) concerned by the possible impact of those
and earlier measures on the world steel market, have
initiated safeguard investigations relating to a range of
steel products. Definitive safeguard measures have in
some cases already been taken. It is therefore clear that
there may be further major fluctuations in the structure
of international steel trade, and in particular deflection
towards the Community market which would cause
injury to the Community producers.

(13) At

the same time, production statistics indicate that
production of crude steel in the Community has fallen
from 163,2 million tonnes in 2000, to 158,5 million
tonnes in 2001 and 118,9 million tonnes in the first
nine months of 2002. Employment in the Community
producers has also declined, from 276 700 in 2000 to
270 000 (1)
is predicted to decline
further in 2002. There is a genuine and substantial link
between the development of these economic indicators
and trends in imports, and it is therefore considered that
trends in imports threaten injury to the Community
producers.

in 2001, and it

provide advanced statistical information permitting rapid
analysis of import trends.

(15)

Therefore, the Commission concludes that,
in accord-
ance with Article 11 of Regulation (EC) No 3285/94 and
Article 9 of Regulation (EC) No 519/94, a system of a
priori surveillance should continue in relation to imports
of certain steel products which are destined for export to
the Community. Taking into account the duration of the
steel safeguard measures imposed by the United States of
America in March 2002,
that
it
system should continue until the end of March 2005.

is appropriate that

(16) Moreover,

so

as not

introduce

unnecessary
to
constraints and not to disturb excessively the activities
of companies close to the borders,
it is desirable to
exclude imports of small quantities from the scope of
the prior community surveillance. Therefore,
imports
whose net weight does not exceed 500 kilogrammes
should be excluded from the application of
this
Regulation,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Regulation (EC) No 76/2002 is amended as follows:

1. at the end of Article 1, add:

‘3.
Imports whose net weight does not exceed 500 kilo-
grammes are excluded from the application of this Regula-
tion.’

2.

in Article 6 replace ‘31 December 2002’ with ‘31 March
2005’.

(14)

Therefore, the interests of the Community require that
imports of certain steel products should continue to be
subject to prior Community surveillance in order to

Article 2

(1) Data not yet finalised and subject to revision.

This Regulation shall enter into force on the day of its publica-
tion in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

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This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

Done at Brussels, 30 December 2002.

For the Commission

Pascal LAMY

Member of the Commission