Commercial Information Circulars

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

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

4 March 2016

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 236/2016

European Union (EU)* : Establishing a procedure for assessing certain market economy treatment and individual treatment claims made by exporting producers in, inter alia, the Mainland of China, and implementing the judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU

Further to Commercial Information Circular No. 821/2013 of 11 October 2013, the European Commission (the Commission) has published an implementing regulation to set out a procedure for assessing certain market economy treatment (MET) and individual treatment (IT) claims made by exporting producers in, inter alia, the Mainland of China, and to implement the judgment of the Court of Justice of the EU (the Court). The implementing regulation can be accessed through the following link:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2016.041.01.0003.01.ENG

DETAILS

2.Subsequent to the judgments in 2012, C&J Clark International Ltd and Puma SE, two importers of footwear with uppers of leather that had been subject to EU's anti-dumping duty, called into question the anti-dumping measures on the imports before their national courts. The matters were subsequently referred to the Court for a preliminary ruling. In its judgment of 4 February 2016, the Court declared two regulations of the Council of the EU, which imposed and extended the anti-dumping measures, invalid in so far as the Commission did not examine the MET and IT claims submitted by non-sampled exporting producers in, inter alia, the Mainland of China. To comply with the judgment, the Commission has established a procedure as follows.

3.For imports of C&J Clark International Ltd and Puma SE, the Commission will within eight months from the date of the judgment assess all MET and IT claims made.

4.For imports of other importers which rely on the judgment in their applications for re-imbursement of anti-dumping duties, the Commission willonly assess MET and IT claims of those exporting producers which are concerned by re-imbursement claims that have been filed with national customs authorities in due time and form.

5.National customs authorities, which have received any requests for re-imbursementof anti-dumping duties imposed during 7 October 2006 to 31 March 2011 and collected by national customs authorities, for the reason that the non-sampled exporting producers had requested MET or IT, shall forward the requests and any supporting documents to the Commission.Within eight months of the receipt of the requests and any supporting documents, the Commission shall verify whether the exporting producers had indeed lodged MET and IT claims, and if so, assess those claims and re-impose the appropriate duty by means of an Implementing Regulation. The national customs authorities shall await the publication of the Implementing Regulation re-imposing the duties before deciding on the claim for repayment and remission of anti-dumping duties.

ENQUIRIES

6.For enquiries concerning the content of this circular, please contact the undersigned at telephone number 2398 5350.

Yours faithfully,

(Y K So)
for Director-General of Trade and Industry

* The EU member countries are 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.