Brussels, 19/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Council of the Union has decided to modify the definitive anti-dumping law which came in in July 2002 on sulphanilic acid from China. As these measures did not have the corrective effect anticipated for these imports of Chinese origin, they were reviewed from the bottom up, after a new inquiry opened last year at the request of European industry (Sorochimie and Quimigal), which account for 100% of European production between them). It turned out that the law on Chinese-origin imports "did not lead to sufficient modification of prices in the Community", and that export prices, as well as sales prices to European end customers even "fell considerably after the anti-dumping measures came in, pre-supposing an increase in practices side-stepping the anticipated corrective effects of the measures in force", indicated a regulation published in the Official Journal L40. This situation has been put down to "an assumption of the anti-dumping duty", which cancels out the effects on prices in Europe. In fact, it states, "the drop in sulphanilic acid prices from China in the Community could not be fully justified" by the parties involved, "even taking account of their comments on fluctuations in the exchange rate". As a result, dumping margins have been recalculated, bringing the anti-dumping duty to 33.7% on Chinese imports, which had previously been set at 21%.