Brussels, 16/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 16 March, the European Commission suggested levying definitive antidumping measures on fresh, frozen and processed strawberries from China. EU antidumping exports voted in favour of such measures last week but they still need to be formally endorsed by the EU Council of Ministers.
An internal battle at the European Commission was won by DG Agriculture which argued that Polish strawberry growers were being hit by imports of low cost strawberries from China (see EUROPE 9370). DG Trade, however, was more convinced by the arguments of various EU jam, fruit juice and yogurt companies which wanted to continue to have access to cheap Chinese strawberries (see EUROPE 9291 for the line taken by the AEFVPI, the Association of European Fruit and Vegetable Processing Industries).
After imposing a provisional 34.2% antidumping duty on fresh and frozen Chinese strawberry imports on 19 October 2006, the European Commission recommends that member states make the antidumping measures definitive as from 19 April 2007. It wants a minimum import price of around EUR 685 per tonne (depending on the product). This means that Chinese strawberries could not be sold in the EU at below this price, failing which the Chinese exporting companies would have to pay a tax equivalent to the difference between the price they charge and the minimum import price. The Commission argues that EU strawberry growers have suffered hugely in the period covered by the study, making losses of around 12.5% because of dumped strawberry imports. The Commission says the minimum import price has the same aim as 'ad valorem duties', namely eliminating the impact of unfair dumping. (lc)