Commercial Information Circulars

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Ref : EIC 230/2/3/2/13

13 June 2008

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 327/2008

European Union (EU)* : Repeal of the Acceptance of an Undertaking Offered in Connection with the Anti-dumping Proceeding Concerning Imports of Certain Castings Originating in the Mainland of China

Further to Commercial Information Circular No. 289/2005 of 2 August 2005, the European Commission (the Commission) has published a decision to repeal the acceptance of an undertaking offered by the Benito Group concerning the anti-dumping proceeding on imports of certain castings originating in the Mainland of China. The decision can be accessed through the following link :
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:153:0037:0041:EN:PDF.

DETAILS

2. Salient points are set out below- 

BACKGROUND

3. Definitive anti-dumping duty on imports of certain castings originating in the Mainland of China has been imposed since 30 July 2005 at a rate of 47.8% of the net, free-at-Community-frontier price before duty (except for a number of companies with individual duty ranging from 0% to 37.9%). On 15 February 2006, the Commission accepted a joint undertaking offered by, inter alia, the Benito Group (including Fundició Dúctil Benito, S.L. (Spain), Benito France, S.A.R.L, Zibo Benito Metalwork Co. Ltd, Benito (Tianjin) Metals Products Co. Ltd, and Qingdao Benito Metals Products Co. Ltd), together with the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products. 
    
4. The companies from which the undertaking was accepted had a joint and several liability for any infringement of undertaking. This means that if one of the members of the Benito Group breached the undertaking, it should be withdrawn for all members of the group. The undertaking offered by the companies obliged them to, inter alia, resell the product covered to the first independent customer in the European Community above certain minimum resale price (MRP) as stated in the undertaking. The terms of undertaking also obliged the companies to provide the Commission with regular and detailed information on the sales and resales of the product concerned in the form of a quarterly report.
    
5. For the purpose of ensuring compliance with the undertaking, the companies also undertook to allow on-spot verification visits at their premises in order to verify the accuracy and veracity of data submitted in the said quarterly reports and to provide all information considered necessary by the Commission. 
    
6. A verification visit was carried out at the premises of Fundició Dúctil Benito in Spain in July 2007. It was established that in certain number of transactions the MRP was not respected. The Benito Group had provided written submissions and argued for the case in a hearing. Subsequently, the Commission decided to withdraw the acceptance of the undertaking offered by the Benito Group. Accordingly, the definitive anti-dumping duty imposed on the product concerned at a rate of 47.8% should apply to the products manufactured by the members of the Benito Group, which are listed in Point 2(b) above.

ENQUIRIES

7. For enquiries concerning the content of this circular, please contact the undersigned at telephone number 2398 5351.

Yours faithfully,

(TANG Yu Him)

for Director-General of Trade and Industry

* The EU includes Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.