(3)

The product subject to registration (‘the product concerned’) is sodium benzoate, usually falling under the Customs and Statistics (‘CUS’) number 0023120-9 and the Chemical Abstracts Service (‘CAS’) number 532-32-1, currently classified under ex CN code 2916 31 00 (TARIC code 2916 31 00 91) and originating in the People’s Republic of China.

(4)

Under Article 14(5) of the basic Regulation, imports of the product concerned may be made subject to registration for the purpose of ensuring that, if the investigation results in findings leading to the imposition of anti-dumping duties, those duties can, if the necessary conditions are fulfilled, be levied retroactively on the registered imports in accordance with the applicable legal provisions.

(5)

The Commission has decided to make imports of the product concerned subject to registration on its own initiative under Article 14(5) of the basic Regulation. The conditions for retroactive collection of duties will be assessed in the regulation imposing definitive duties, if any.

(6)

Any future liability would emanate from the findings of the anti-dumping investigation.

(7)

The calculations provided in the complaint requesting the initiation of an anti-dumping investigation estimate a dumping margin of 125 % and an injury elimination level between 70 % and 90 % for the product concerned for the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. The amount of possible future liability would normally be set at the lower of those two levels, according to Article 9(4) of the basic Regulation.

(8)

If, during the investigation, the Commission finds evidence of raw material distortions pursuant to Article 7(2a) of the basic Regulation, the amount of possible future liability would be set at the level of the dumping margin as provided for in Article 7(2b) of the basic Regulation if it is concluded that a duty lower than the margin of dumping would not be sufficient to remove the injury suffered by the Union industry.

(9)

However, at this stage the Commission is not in a position to estimate the amount of possible future liability. Thus, the amounts mentioned in the complaint are only for information purposes and cannot create any expectations as to the actual level of liability which will be established as a result of the investigation.

(10)

Any personal data collected in the context of this registration will be treated in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council (3), on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data,