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

15 March 2013

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 227/2013

European Union (EU) * : Imposition of a Countervailing duty on Imports of Certain Organic Coated Steel Products Originating in the Mainland of China

Further to the Commercial Information Circular No. 143/2012 of 22 February 2012, the Council of the EU has published an implementing regulation to impose a definitive countervailing duty on imports of certain organic coated steel products originating in the Mainland of China. The implementing regulation can be accessed through the following link:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2013:073:0016:0097:EN:PDF.

DETAILS

2.Salient points are set out below -

(a) Product	:	Certain organic coated steel products, i.e. flat-rolled products of non-alloy and alloy steel (not including stainless steel) which are painted, varnished or coated with plastics on at least one side, excluding so-called 'sandwich panels' of a kind used for building applications and consisting of two outer metal sheets with a stabilising core of insulation material sandwiched between them, excluding those products with a final coating of zinc-dust (a zinc-rich paint, containing by weight 70% or more of zinc), and excluding those products with a substrate with a metallic coating of chromium or tin, currently falling within CN codes ex 7210 70 80, ex 7212 40 80, ex 7225 99 00, ex 7226 99 70 (TARIC codes 7210 70 80 11, 7210 70 80 91, 7212 40 80 01, 7212 40 80 21, 7212 40 80 91, 7225 99 00 11, 7225 99 00 91, 7226 99 70 11 and 7226 99 70 91).
(b) Rate of Duty	:	44.7% of the net, free-at-Union-frontier price before duty (except for a number of companies whose individual duty rates range from 13.7% to 29.7%).
(c) Effective Date	:	16 March 2013

BACKGROUND

3.The countervailing proceeding on imports of certain organic coated steel products originating in the Mainland of China was initiated following a complaint lodged on 9 January 2012 by EUROFER on behalf of producers representing in this case more than 70% of the total Union production of the concerned products. For details, please refer to the Commercial Information Circular No. 143/2012 of 22 February 2012.

4.Apart from the definitive countervailing duty, the Council of the EU has also imposed a definitive anti-dumping duty on imports of certain organic coated steel products originating in the Mainland of China. For details, please refer to the Commercial Information Circular No. 226/2013 of 15 March 2013.

ENQUIRIES

5.For enquiries concerning the contents of this circular, please contact the undersigned at telephone number 2398 5684.

Yours faithfully,

(Miss Stella CHAN)
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.
Note 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.