Brussels, 07/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Union has decided to impose definitive anti-dumping measures against imports of silicon from Russia. Duties will be imposed on producers found guilty of anti-dumping over five years. Duties will range from 22.7% and 23.6%, levels that are slightly lower than surcharges temporarily imposed on the producer companies. The Council was able to validate certain price adjustments requested by the Russian operators, taking into account of the different qualities of their products (essentially for specialist use in the chemical and metal industries) and the different trade conditions of their sales to the EU. Commitments made by one of the producers following publication of the definitive conclusions were rejected because they were seen as "a potential risk of cross-compensation, the various fixed prices will be respected but the prices of products not affected will be reduced as soon as they are sold with the products covered by the measures". The regulation published in Official Journal L339 states that this will mean commitments for respecting a minimum price on silicon will be easy to get round and very difficult to inspect effectively". The investigation covering the period October 2001-September 2002 confirmed the existence of dumping (with margins of between 23.6% and 24.8%), damages suffered by European producers (sharp decreases in parts of the market, liquidity fluctuations, investments and returns on investment, as well as profitability and sales prices), the link between cause and Community interest.