The European Commission will tighten its sanctions on imports of ceramic table- and kitchenware from China that are found to be circumventing EU anti-dumping measures, it announced on Thursday 12 December.
Last March, the Commission, noting a sharp increase in exports by some Chinese companies between 2014 and 2018, took the initiative to launch an in-depth investigation into these Chinese products. In July, it had already applied its existing sanctions for a further five years (see EUROPE 12297/10, 12023/19).
Following its largest anti-circumvention investigation, it confirmed that Chinese companies are evading anti-dumping duties of around 36% by channelling their ceramic exports through other companies that were subject to lower anti-dumping duties of around 18%.
The Commission has therefore decided to double the rate of its anti-dumping measures on all Chinese companies - more than 30 in total - having been found complicit in this deception, by increasing their duties to 36%. These will be applicable from 21 March 2019; 15 million euros will be collected retroactively.
More than half of the companies producing tableware and kitchenware utensils are small and medium-sized enterprises. The market share of the European sector is already much lower (30%) than that of Chinese producers (55%) in the EU.
The Commission hopes that its measures will finally restore fair competition.
To read the rules: https://bit.ly/38uThGV (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel)