91997E2861

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2861/97 by Arlene McCarthy (PSE) to the Commission (1 September 1997)

Subject: Inquiry into anti-dumping duties on exports of unbleached cotton from India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey, China and Egypt

With regard to the new inquiry into anti-dumping duties on exports of unbleached cotton from India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey, China and Egypt, would the Commission please clarify the role that the Community Interest investigation will play in this third complaint, in the light of the fact that the results of the same procedure were given little consideration during the previous case earlier this year?

For the benefit of the many interested parties devoting considerable time and resources to preventing the imposition of these duties, the inevitable consequences of which would be redundancies and factory closures across the European textiles finishing industry and wholesale sector, would the Commission please clarify whether the inquiry is indeed legal and will therefore continue, given that no official notice was published to formally close the previous investigation, which expired in May?

Answer given by Sir Leon Brittan on behalf of the Commission (23 September 1997)

In the previous anti-dumping proceedings, a thorough Community interest investigation was conducted in order to assess the impact of possible measures on all interested parties. This investigation concluded that it was in the Community interest to take anti-dumping measures. The Council, however, did not accept the Commission's proposal to impose definitive measures and the 15 month deadline set by Article 6.9 of Council Regulation (EC) No384/96 on protection against dumped imports from countries not members of the European Community ((OJ L 56, 6.3.1996. )) expired. The provisional duties imposed during those proceedings have therefore lapsed without being collected and the expiry of the deadline means that definitive measures may no longer be adopted pursuant to that investigation.

Shortly after the expiry of the above mentioned deadline the Commission received a new anti-dumping complaint. This has been scrutinised in the normal way with the conclusion that there was sufficient evidence to warrant initiation of proceedings. The Commission consequently decided to initiate new proceedings on this product and a notice ((OJ C 210, 11.7.1997. )) was published to that effect.

In these new proceedings, the same special attention will be paid to analysing in detail the Community interest aspect of the case. In this respect all interested parties (producers, importers, finishers) are now being invited to provide detailed information on a number of aspects, including possible redundancies and factory closures. This information will be taken into account for the examination of the merits of the case.