CELEX: 31978K1758
Language: en
Date: 1978-07-26 00:00:00
Title: Commission Recommendation No 1758/78/ECSC of 26 July 1978 imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty on certain angles, shapes and sections of iron or steel, originating in Spain

No L 203 /28                              Official Journal of the European Communities                                      27 . 7 . 78
                                COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION No 1758 / 78 / ECSC
                                                           of 26 July 1978
                imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty on certain angles, shapes and sections
                                               of iron or steel , originating in Spain
 THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN                                        sional anti-dumping duties, the Commission gave inte­
 COMMUNITIES,                                                          rested parties the opportunity to make known their
                                                                       views in writing and gave the parties directly
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European                 concerned who so requested the opportunity orally to
 Coal and Steel Community, and in particular Articles                  develop their views ;
 74 and 86 thereof,
                                                                       Whereas, however, in so far as interested parties did
 Having     regard      to    Commission        recommendation         not avail themselves of the opportunity to make
 77/329/ ECSC of 15 April 1977 on protection against                   known their views or present their arguments, the
 dumping or the granting of bounties or subsidies by                   Commission had to base its findings on the facts avail­
 countries which are not members of the European                       able ;
 Coal and Steel Community ('), as amended by recom­
 mendation No 3004/77/ ECSC (2), and in particular
 Articles 17 and 19 thereof,                                           Whereas in view of the particular situation prevailing
                                                                       on    national   and   international     markets for steel      it
 Having heard the opinions expressed within the Advi­                  appeared to the Commission that sales                   on the
 sory Committee provided for by recommendation                         domestic market of Spain were not made in              the ordi­
 77/329/ ECSC,                                                         nary course of trade and die. not permit              a proper
                                                                       comparison for the purposes of establishing           dumping
 Whereas the Commission has received a complaint,                      margins ;
 submitted in the name of the relevant Community
 industry, setting out evidence as to the existence of                 Whereas, for these reasons, the Commission has
 dumping of certain angles, shapes and sections of iron                decided to base its dumping calculations on the cost
 or steel, originating in Spain and certain other coun­                of production in a country considered to be one of the
 tries, and material injury resulting therefrom ;                      most efficient producers of the product in question, as
                                                                       established by means of the latest publicly available
 Whereas, since the information received indicated                     data ;
 that the complaint was admissible and that defensive
 measures might be necessary, the Commission offi­
                                                                       Whereas such cost of production has been calculated
 cially informed the importers and exporters known to
                                                                       taking into consideration inter alia the following
 be concerned , published in the Official Journal of
                                                                       elements : raw material (covering iron ore, sinter,
 the European Communities a notice of the initiation
                                                                       pellets, scrap, ferro alloys and other iron-bearing mate­
 of an inquiry concerning the imports in question (3)
 and commenced an examination of the matter in                         rials and fluxes), energy costs (coke, fuel oil, electri­
                                                                       city), labour costs including social costs, other
 cooperation with the Member States ;
                                                                       operating costs (including maintenance costs and
 Whereas, since preliminary examination of the matter                  transport costs) and capital costs, to which was added
 showed that there was dumping and sufficient                          a reasonable amount for administration , selling and
 evidence of injury and the interests of the Community                 any other costs and for profits ;
 called for immediate intervention , the Commission ,
 by recommendation No 159/78/ECSC (4), imposed a                       Whereas        the    aforementioned         calculation      has
 provisional anti-dumping duty on the imports in ques­                 confirmed the reasonableness of the basic prices as
 tion ;                                                                published by the Commission (7) ;
 Whereas, the said provisional                 duty   has   been       Whereas the prices of imports into the Community of
 extended (5 ) and suspended (6) ;                                     the products which are the subject of the complaint
                                                                       have been compared with these basic prices ;
 Whereas, in the course of the examination of the
 matter, completed after the imposition of the provi­
                                                                       Whereas this price comparison was made on a free
(>)  OJ  No  L 114, 5. 5. 1977, p. 6.                                  Community frontier duty-paid basis ;
(2)  OJ  No  L 352, 31 . 12. 1977, p. 13 .
(3)  OJ  No  C 33, 9 . 2. 1978 , p. 3 .                                (7) Communication from the Commission of 31 December
(4)  OJ  No  L 23 , 28 . 1 . 1978 , p. 3 .                                 1977 concerning the basic prices of certain steel products
(5)  OJ No  L  115, 27. 4. 1978 .                                          (OJ No L 353, 31 . 12. 1977, p. 1 ), as modified by commu­
(<>) OJ  No  L 120, 4. 5 . 1978 .                                          nication of 5 July 1978 (OJ No L 183, 5 . 7 . 1978 , p. 3).
 ---pagebreak---  27 . 7. 78                         Official Journal of the European Communities                              No L 203/29
 Whereas this examination of the matter has shown             Whereas the amount of such definitive duty should
 that the products in question were offered for import        correspond to the difference between the basic price
 within the Community at prices lower than the basic          published by the Commission for the products in
 prices and that dumping has taken place, the margin          question and their price on importation into the
 of which is constituted by this undercutting ;               Community, due consideration being given to any
                                                              reduction in value claimed by the importers and esta­
 Whereas, with regard to injury to the industry               blished to the satisfaction of the competent national
 concerned, the evidence available to the Commission          authorities ;
 shows that imports into the Community of the
 products concerned increased overall from 374 000            Whereas, however, certain arrangements have been
 tonnes in 1974 to 519 000 tonnes in 1977, while those        made between the Community and Spain with respect
 originating in Spain rose from 32 000 to 259 000             to trade in steel products ;
 tonnes over the same period, the market shares thus
 achieved being 9 % for all imports and 6 % for those         Whereas these arrangements, which the Commission
 originating in Spain, together with those from               considers satisfactory, allow the definitive duty under
 Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Japan and South Africa,             this recommendation to be suspended and to exclude
 which are also subject to defensive measures in the          certain    transactions  from   the  definitive    collection
 Community or to steel arrangements concluded with            duty,
 the ECSC ;
 Whereas, on the other hand, the Community steel
 industry is in a state of crisis ; whereas during the        HAS ADOPTED THIS RECOMMENDATION :
 period 1974 to 1977 deliveries of the products fell by
 some 21 % , while the number employed fell from
 780 000 to 720 000, short-time working became neces­
 sary and most of the firms concerned showed reduced                                    Article 1
 profits or serious losses ;
                                                               1 . A definitive anti-dumping duty is hereby
 Whereas, in order to remedy this situation, the              imposed on the following products originating in
 Commission has introduced a system of guidance               Spain :
 prices (') for sales within the Community of certain
 steel products produced by the European steel
 industry ;
                                                                         CCT
                                                                        heading                     Description
                                                                          No
 Whereas the import prices into the Community of
 products originating in Spain are considerably lower
 than these guidance prices ; whereas such undercut­          73.11 A I                Certain angles, shapes and U, I or
 ting prevents the European producers from achieving          (NIMEXE            codes H sections of iron or steel , not
                                                              73.11-11 , 12, 14, 16)   further worked than hot-rolled or
 the guidance pricfes, jeopardizes the equilibrium of the
                                                                                       extruded
 entire pricing system and causes or threatens to cause
 material injury to the Community industry or to a
 major part thereof ;
                                                              2. The amount of this duty shall be equal to the
Whereas, therefore, the facts as finally established          amount by which the effective price (basic price plus
show that material injury has been caused to the              extras) established by contract, free frontier duty-paid,
 Community industry, or that such injury would have           is lower than the effective price (basic price plus
 been caused if provisional action had not been taken,        extras) last published by the Commission for this
 by imports originating in Spain together with those          product at the time of its entry for Community
 from Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Japan and South                consumption .
Africa, which are also subject to defensive measures or
covered by steel arrangements concluded with the              3. The amount of the duty shall however be
 Community ;                                                  reduced to the extent that the importer establishes to
                                                              the satisfaction of the competent national authorities
Whereas, in the serious conditions being experienced          that the price differential referred to in paragraph 2
by the Community steel industry, the interests of the         above is due to a diminution in value resulting from
Community require the imposition of a definitive              the quality of the goods being inferior to the lowest
anti-dumping duty and the definitive collection of the        quality described in the last publication of basic prices
amount secured by way of provisional duty ;                   by the Commission .
(!) OJ No L 114, 5. 5. 1977, p. 1 ; OJ No C 174, 22. 7.       4.    This duty shall be collected on the same basis as
    1977 ; OJ No L 352, 31 . 12. 1977, p. 17.                 customs duties.
 ---pagebreak--- No L 203/30                        Official Journal of the European Communities                            27 . 7 . 78
                        Article 2                                sion clause permitting an adaptation of the
                                                                 contract prices to the basic prices applied in the
The amounts secured by way of provisional duty                   Community ;
under the provisions of recommendation No 159/78 /
ECSC in respect of products originating in Spain shall       (c) deliveries made under the contracts referred to
be definitively collected to the extent that they do not         under (b) above and destined for shipbuilding
exceed the rate of duty fixed in this recommendation .           yards within the Community.
                        Article 3                                                    Article 5
The application of the definitive anti-dumping duty          This recommendation shall be notified to the Member
imposed under Article 1 above is hereby suspended.           States .
                        Article 4                            It shall enter into force for each Member State on the
                                                             date of its publication in the Official Journal of the
In derogation from Article 2, the amounts secured by          European Communities.
way of provisional duty shall not be definitively
collected but shall be refunded, upon request of the
importer concerned, as regards :
                                                             Done at Brussels, 26 July 1978 .
(a) shapes and sections of iron or steel, not further
    worked than hot rolled or extruded, joists,
    universal beams and columns and channels with a                                     For the Commission
    web measurement of less than 80 mm ;
                                                                                       Wilhelm HAFERKAMP
(b) deliveries made under contracts concluded before
    20 December 1977 which contain no price revi                                            Vice-President