Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1. Common commercial policy - Protection against dumping practices - Dumping margin - Determination of normal value - Imports from non-market economy countries - Choice of reference country - Discretion of institutions - Review by the Court - Limits

(Council Regulation No 2423/88, Art. 2(5)(a) )

2. Common commercial policy - Protection against dumping practices - Dumping margin - Determination of normal value - Imports from non-market economy countries - Reference to price in a third country with a market economy - Determination in an appropriate and not unreasonable manner - Criteria to be applied in the choice of a reference country

(Council Regulations No 2423/88, Art 2(5)(a) and No 725/89)

Summary

1. Although the choice under Article 2(5)(a) of the basic anti-dumping regulation, No 2423/88, of the reference country for purposes of the determination of the normal value of products from a non-market economy country is a matter falling within the discretion enjoyed by the institutions in analysing complex economic situations, it is not thereby excluded from review by the Court.

As regards such a discretion, the Court' s review relates to compliance with the procedural rules, the question of whether the facts on which the choice is based have been accurately stated and whether there has been a manifest error of appraisal or a misuse of powers, which implies, as regards the choice of reference country, that it must be verified whether the institutions have neglected to take account of essential factors for the purpose of establishing the appropriate nature of the country chosen and whether the information contained in the documents in the case has been considered with all the care required for the view to be taken that the normal value has been determined in an appropriate and not unreasonable manner.

2. It cannot be concluded that the normal value of products from a non-market economy country has been determined by reference to the price in a market-economy third country in "an appropriate and not unreasonable manner" within the meaning of Article 2(5)(a) of the basic anti-dumping regulation, No 2423/88, when, on the one hand, various factors already known to the Commission relating to the volume and methods of production, to conditions of access to raw materials and to the prices on the domestic market were such as to raise doubts as to the appropriateness of the third country chosen as a reference country and when, on the other hand, the institutions have not made a serious or sufficient attempt to determine whether the third country suggested by one of the parties to the proceedings could be regarded as an appropriate reference country. For that reason it must be considered that Regulation No 725/89 imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty on imports of paint, distemper, varnish and similar brushes originating in the People' s Republic of China and definitively collecting the provisional anti-dumping duty on such imports is invalid.