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Trade and Industry Department The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
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Commercial Information Circulars

24-hour hotline : 23 922 922

e-mail address : enquiry@tid.gov.hk

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

22 September 2008

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 476/2008

European Union (EU)* : Initiation of an Investigation concerning the Possible Circumvention of Anti-Dumping Measures Imposed on Imports of Hand Pallet Trucks and Their Essential Parts Originating in the Mainland of China by Imports of the Same Product Consigned from Thailand, whether Declared as Originating in Thailand or not

Further to Commercial Information Circular No. 373/2008 of 21 July 2008, the European Commission (the Commission) has published a regulation to initiate an investigation concerning the possible circumvention of anti-dumping measures imposed on imports of hand pallet trucks (HPT) and their essential parts originating in the Mainland of China by imports of the same product consigned from Thailand, whether declared as originating in Thailand or not. The regulation also requires imports of the product concerned to be subject to registration. The regulation can be accessed through the following link:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:252:0003:0006:EN:PDF.

  1. Salient points are set out below-
     
(a) Date of Publication of the Notice : 20 September 2008 
(b) Product Coverage : Hand pallet trucks and their essential parts, i.e. chassis and hydraulics, normally declared under CN codes ex 8427 90 00 and ex 8431 20 00. Hand pallet trucks are defined as trucks with wheels supporting lifting fork arms for handling pallets, designed to be manually pushed, pulled and steered, on smooth, level, hard surfaces, by a pedestrian operator using an articulated tiller. The hand pallet trucks are only designed to raise a load, by pumping the tiller, to a height sufficient for transporting and do not have any other additional functions or uses such as for example (i) to move and to lift the loads in order to place them higher or assist in storage of loads (highlifters); (ii) to stack one pallet above the other (stackers); (iii) to lift the load to a working level (scissorlifts); or (iv) to lift and to weigh the loads (weighing trucks). 

The product under investigation is hand pallet trucks and their essential parts, as defined in the above paragraph, consigned from Thailand, normally declared under the same codes as the product concerned.
(c) Procedures : In order to obtain necessary information for the investigation, the Commission will send questionnaires to the exporters/producers, to the associations of exporters/producers in Thailand, to the importers and to the associations of importers in the Community which co-operated in the investigation that led to the existing measures, and to the authorities of the Mainland of China and Thailand. Information, as appropriate, may also be sought from the Community industry as well as from the exporters/producers in the Mainland of China.

Interested parties should request a copy of the questionnaire from the Commission within 15 days from 20 September 2008.

All interested parties may make their views known in writing (including submitting questionnaire replies) and apply to be heard by the Commission within 40 days from 20 September 2008, unless otherwise specified.

All correspondence must be made in writing (not in electronic format, unless otherwise specified) indicating the name, address, e-mail address, telephone and fax numbers of the interested party and should be sent to the following address :

European Commission
Directorate General for Trade
Directorate H
Office : N105 04/090
B-1040 Brussels
Fax : (32-2) 295 65 05

If interested parties consider that they are encountering difficulties in the exercise of their rights of defence, they may request the intervention of the Hearing Officer, who offers, where necessary, mediation on procedural matters affecting the protection of their interests in this proceeding, in particular, with regard to issues concerning access to the file, confidentiality, extension of time limits and the treatment of written and/or oral submission of views. For further information and contact details, interested parties may consult the Hearing Officer's web pages on the website of DG Trade (http://ec.europa.eu/trade). 
(d) Registration of Imports : With effect from 21 September 2008, imports of the product concerned are subject to registration by the EU's customs authorities. The registration shall expire nine months from 21 September 2008.

Should the investigation result in findings of circumvention, anti-dumping duties of an appropriate amount can be levied retroactively from the date of registration of such imports consigned from Thailand. 
(e) Exemption from Registration of Imports or Measures : Imports of the products concerned may be exempted from registration or measures if such importation does not constitute circumvention.

Producers in the Thailand requesting exemption of imports from registration or measures should submit a request duly supported by evidence within 40 days from 20 September 2008, unless otherwise specified. 

BACKGROUND

  1. Definitive anti-dumping duty on imports of HPT and their essential parts originating in the Mainland of China has been imposed since 22 July 2005 at a rate of 46.7% of the net, free-at-Community-frontier price before duty (except for four companies with individual duty rates ranging from 7.6% to 39.9%).
     
  2.  The Commission, on its own initiative, decided to investigate the possible circumvention of the anti-dumping measures by means of assembly operations in Thailand of the product under investigation.

ENQUIRIES

  1. 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.



Note ：

  • (1) While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the above information, the Department cannot guarantee this to be so and will not be held liable for any reliance placed on the same.
  • (2)The biweekly newsletter "Business Alert - EU" of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council provides up-to-date information on the latest developments in EU trade policy and trade regulations. The newsletter is available for free e-subscription and can be accessed through
    http://www.tdctrade.com/alert/eualert.htm.