Commercial Information Circulars

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

11 October 2013

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 821/2013

European Union (EU)* : Notice Concerning the Judgments by the Court of Justice of the European Union in relation to a Council Regulation Imposing a Definitive Anti-dumping Duty and Collecting Definitely Provisional Duty Imposed on Certain Footwear with Uppers of Leather Originating in, inter alia, the Mainland of China

The European Commission (the Commission) has published a notice concerning the judgments by the Court of Justice of the European Union (the Court) in relation to a previous Council Regulation imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty and collecting definitely the provisional duty imposed of certain footwear with uppers of leather originating in, inter alia, the Mainland of China. The notice can be accessed through the following link:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2013:295:0006:0008:EN:PDF.

DETAILS

2.In its judgments of 2 February 2012 and of 15 November 2012, the Court partially annulled Council Regulation (EC) No 1472/2006 imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty and collecting definitely the provisional duty imposed on imports of certain footwear with uppers of leather originating in, inter alia, the Mainland of China (the Regulation). The Regulation was annulled in so far as it relates to five exporting producers, namely, Brosmann Footwear (HK) Ltd, Seasonable Footwear (Zhongshan) Ltd, Lung Pao Footwear (Guangzhou) Ltd and Risen Footwear (HK) Co Ltd as well as Zhejiang Aokang Shoes Co. Ltd.

3.In order to comply with the Court judgements which stated, inter alia, that the Union institutions should have examined and to decided upon the requests for market economy treatment (MET) lodged by the concerned exporting producers, the Commission decided to resume the procedure for replacing the annulled parts of the Regulation and to examine whether market economy conditions prevailed for the concerned exporting producers for the period from 1 April 2004 to 31 March 2005. In this connection, the Commission envisages disclosing the findings of its MET assessment in respect of the concerned exporting producers as well as the proposed implementation of the Court's judgments to all interested parties in the original investigation if they so request.

4.Since the original investigation was carried out in 2005-2006 and to ensure that the Commission has the correct contact details of potential interested parties, the Commission invites all the interested parties that came forward in the original investigation to indicate whether they wish to receive the above-mentioned disclosure and, if so, to provide the following information within 15 days from 11 October 2013:

- the category of the interested party in the present case (e.g. Union producer, unrelated importer, exporting producer etc.);
- confirmation of the interest to be involved as interested party in the current implementation of the Court's judgments;
- name, address and e-mail address of the interested party;
- supporting documentation demonstrating that the party was an interested party in the original investigation.

5.All relevant information is to be communicated to the Commission in writing and must indicate the name, address, e-mail address and telephone of the interested parties.

Commission address for correspondence:

European Commission
Directorate-General for Trade
Directorate H
Office: N 105 08/020
1049 Brussels
Belgium
Email: Trade-AD499-Footwear-Court@ec.europa.eu

6.Interested parties may request the intervention of the Hearing Officer of Directorate-General for Trade (DG Trade), who acts as an interface between the interested parties and the Commission investigation services through reviewing requests for access to the file, disputes regarding the confidentiality of documents, requests for extension of time-limits and requests by third parties to be heard. A request for a hearing with the Hearing Officer should be made in writing and should specify the reasons for the request. For hearings on issues pertaining to the initial stage of the investigation the request must be submitted within 15 days from 11 October 2013. For further information and contact details, interested parties may consult the Hearing Officer's web pages on DG Trade's website.

BACKGROUND

7.Definitive anti-dumping duty on certain footwear with uppers of leather originating in, inter alia, the Mainland of China was imposed with the duty in force at 16.5% of the net, free-at-Union-frontier price before duty (except for one company whose individual rate was 9.7%) from 7 October 2006. Following a circumvention investigation, the definitive anti-dumping duty was extended to imports of the same products consigned from Macao SAR with effect from 2 May 2008. Consequent to an expiry review, the anti-dumping duty was maintained for a further 15 months from 31 December 2009. In the absence of any request for expiry review, the anti-dumping duty on the product concerned expired on 31 March 2011.

ENQUIRIES

8.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, Croatia, 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.