Matten: European Commission Likely to Skip Preliminary Antidumping Tariff Decision

John Wolz

The European Commission antidumping committee meets this week and there are “strong indications it will recommend that preliminary tariffs are not applied on fastener imports from China,” Fastener & Fixing editor Phil Matten reported.

“Instead the commission is almost certain to continue its investigations and move on to the definitive stage of proceedings, for which it has a further six months according to EU antidumping regulations,” Matten said.

The commission is expected to issue a status report in lieu of the preliminary tariff decision by August 8, 2008.

Commission investigations are carried out in secret so there is no current indication of why this has proven necessary, Matten noted. “However, it is known that the investigation has proven extremely complex for the investigation team. Ten tariff codes were cited in the original complaint, which means the investigation has to cover an extensive range of fastener products,” Matten explained.

The case has also received a very high volume of evidence and counter argument from European distributor organizations and from those representing Chinese manufacturers, Matten added. E-mail: editor@fastfair.net �2008 FastenerNews.com and Fastener & Fixing Europe