Keywords
Summary

Keywords

++++

1.Common commercial policy - Protection against dumping or subsidizing by non-member countries - Discretionary power of the Community institutions - Scope of judicial review

( Council Regulations Nos 3017/79 and 2176/84 )

2.Common commercial policy - Protection against dumping - Conduct of the investigation - Termination of the proceeding solely on the basis of the absence of injury - Permissibility

( Council Regulation No 2176/84, Arts 2, 4(1 ) and 12(1 ) )

3.Common commercial policy - Protection against dumping - Injury - Period to be taken into consideration - Commission' s discretionary power

( Council Regulation No 2176/84, Art . 4 )

4.Common commercial policy - Protection against dumping - Conduct of the proceeding - Duration of more than one year - Permissibility - Condition - Reasonable period

( Council Regulation No 2176/84, Art . 7(9 ) ).

5.Common commercial policy - Protection against dumping - Imposition of anti-dumping duties - Commission proposal - Council' s power of decision - Extent

Summary

1.Even where a discretionary power is conferred on the Community institutions by Community rules for protection against dumped or subsidized imports from non-member countries, the Court is called upon to verify whether those institutions have observed the procedural guarantees afforded by those rules and whether or not they have committed manifest errors in their assessment of the facts, have omitted to take any essential matters into consideration or have based the reasons for their decision on considerations amounting to a misuse of powers .

2.Article 4(1 ) of Regulation No 2176/84 does not in proper circumstances preclude the existence of injury allegedly suffered by Community industries from being ascertained independently of the two other conditions required for the imposition of anti-dumping duties, namely a definitive finding of dumping and the need to act in the Community interest . Moreover, it is clear from Articles 2 and 4 of the aforementioned regulation that findings of dumping and injury are based on different factors which may therefore be analysed separately .

Although Articles 4(1 ) and 12(1 ) of the regulation make the imposition of a definitive anti-dumping duty conditional on the existence of a causal link between the dumping and the injury suffered by the Community industry, a finding of an absence of injury is sufficient to justify the termination of the proceedings without the imposition of any anti-dumping duty .

3.Article 4 of Regulation No 2176/84 confers a wide discretionary power on the Commission as regards the period to be taken into consideration in the context of an anti-dumping proceeding . In taking into consideration a period of four years the Commission is merely conforming to the Community practice followed in that regard .

4.The one-year period mentioned in Article 7(9 ) of Regulation No 2176/84 for the conduct of anti-dumping proceedings is a guide rather than a mandatory period . That is borne out both by the wording of the provision in question and by the nature of the anti-dumping proceeding whose progress does not depend solely on the efforts of the Community authorities . However, it follows from that provision that the anti-dumping proceeding must not be extended beyond a reasonable period to be assessed according to the particular circumstances of each case .

5.Under Article 12 of Regulation No 2176/84 the Council is competent to rule on all the conditions which must be satisfied for the imposition of an anti-dumping duty without being obliged to adopt every proposal made in that connection by the Commission .