COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING DECISION (EU) 2023/374
of 13 February 2023
concerning exemptions from the extended anti-dumping duty on certain bicycle parts originating in the People’s Republic of China pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 88/97
(notified under document C(2023) 901)
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Regulation (EU) 2016/1036 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2016 on protection against dumped imports from countries not members of the European Union (1), and in particular Article 13(4) thereof,
Having regard to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/45 of 20 January 2020 amending Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1379 as regards the extension of the anti-dumping duty imposed on imports of bicycles originating in the People’s Republic of China to imports of certain bicycle parts originating in the People’s Republic of China by Council Regulation (EC) No 71/97 (2),
Having regard to Commission Regulation (EC) No 88/97 of 20 January 1997 on the authorisation of the exemption of imports of certain bicycle parts originating in the People’s Republic of China from the extension by Council Regulation (EC) No 71/97 of the anti-dumping duty imposed by Council Regulation (EEC) No 2474/93 (3), and in particular Articles 4 to 7 thereof,
After informing the Member States,
Whereas:
(1) An anti-dumping duty applies on imports of essential bicycle parts originating in the People’s Republic of China (‘China’) (‘the extended duty’) as a result of the extension of the anti-dumping duty imposed on imports of bicycles originating in China by Council Regulation (EC) No 71/97 (4).
(2) Under Article 3 of Regulation (EC) No 71/97 the Commission is empowered to adopt the necessary measures to authorise the exemption of imports of essential bicycle parts which do not circumvent the anti-dumping duty.
(3) Those implementing measures are set forth in Regulation (EC) No 88/97 (‘the exemption Regulation’) establishing the specific exemption system.
(4) On that basis the Commission has exempted a number of bicycle assemblers from the extended duty.
(5) As provided for in Article 16(2) of the exemption Regulation, the Commission has published in the
Official Journal of the European Union
subsequent lists of the exempted parties (5).
(6) The most recent Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/1461 (6) concerning exemptions under the exemption Regulation was adopted on 26 August 2022.
(7) For the purposes of this Decision, the definitions set out in Article 1 of Regulation (EC) No 88/97 apply.
(8) In October 2018 the Commission received from the Portuguese company Sangal – Indústria de Veículos Lda (‘Sangal’) (‘the company’) a request for change in references of the exemption authorisation granted with TARIC additional code A407 by Commission Decision 2003/899/EC (7).
(9) In particular, Sangal requested to change its name to Sangal E-bike Manufacturing Lda and its legal address to Zona Industrial Da Mota Rua 7, lote A11 Gafanha Da Encarnação, 3830-527 Gafanha Da Encarnação, Portugal.
(10) However, the assessment of the merits of the request revealed that company changed not only its name and address but also the ownership and, most importantly, its assembling activities, since Sangal started assembling exclusively bicycles fitted with an auxiliary motor (‘e-bikes’).
(11) In January 2019 Sangal confirmed that the company was assembling e-bikes only but it pointed out that the restarting of the assembly of conventional bicycles was planned for 2019. Therefore, Sangal asked the Commission to consider Sangal as an assembler of both conventional bicycles and e-bikes (‘hybrid assembler’) and to grant the requested change in references of the exemption authorisation on the basis of the planned assembling of conventional bicycles.
(12) Therefore, the Commission suspended the assessment of the request for change in references in order to allow Sangal to provide adequate evidence of the assembly of conventional bicycles.
(13) In October 2022, Sangal reiterated the request for change in references of the exemption authorisation referred to in recital (8) by arguing that the relevant Portuguese Customs Administration highlighted to the company that the references of the exemption authorisation as granted by the Commission did not correspond with those of the company that was importing bicycle parts in exemption.
(14) In this regard, the Commission requested Sangal to provide evidence that it assembled conventional bicycles as it was communicated in 2019.
(15) Still in October 2022, the company informed the Commission that the assembling of conventional bicycles had not started yet, allegedly due to a shortage of supply of bicycle parts. However, Sangal assembled e-bikes instead. Sangal also claimed that they would start the assembly of conventional bicycles by the current year 2022.
(16) The Commission notes that pursuant to the exemption Regulation, one of the conditions to benefit from the exemption authorisation is that assemblers must use the bicycle parts purchased in exemption to assemble conventional bicycles. Furthermore, hybrid assemblers (i.e. assemblers of both conventional bicycles and e-bikes) can also benefit from the use of the exemption authorisation. However, parties assembling e-bikes exclusively cannot benefit from the exemption authorisation granted pursuant to the exemption Regulation. These parties should operate under an
ad-hoc
end-use authorisation granted according to the customs legislation of the Union, provided that they meet the conditions to benefit from it.
(17) In the light of the above, Sangal cannot be considered a hybrid assembler. The Commission gave reasonable time to the company to restart the assembly of conventional bicycles and it failed to do so. Therefore, the request of change in references as referred to in recitals (8) and (9) should be rejected.
(18) Moreover, Sangal does not comply anymore with the requirements of the exemption authorisation granted under the exemption Regulation. Therefore, the exemption authorisation for Sangal referred to in recital (8) should be withdrawn. The request for change of name referred to in recital (9) therefore falls.
(19) On 9 December 2022 a disclosure of the above findings on the basis of which it was intended to propose to adopt a Commission Implementing Decision rejecting the request of change in references and withdrawing the exemption authorisation was sent to Sangal.
(20) Following disclosure, on 19 December 2022 Sangal confirmed that in the course of the last four years the assembling of conventional bicycles has never started. The company invoked exceptional circumstances in the market, such as substantial increased demand for e-bikes, while at the same time there had been a significant increase in freight cost coupled with a very long lead time for the delivery of parts, while the company was still in the start-up phase and loss making.
(21) The Commission noted, however, that the increased demand for e-bikes is not relevant in the present assessment. Moreover, no evidence was submitted by Sangal in relation to the invoked exceptional circumstances, such as the long lead time for the delivery of parts. On the contrary, the Commission noted that according to the report of the European 14(6) Database, the volume of bicycle parts purchased by Sangal increased significantly during the last four years and has even doubled in 2022.
(22) Furthermore, Sangal submitted that it would be in the process of finalising a purchase order with a related company that, if confirmed, would lead to the assembling of around 4 000 conventional bicycles to be consigned in the course of 2023. Therefore, Sangal asked the Commission to grant additional time to prove that the company can be considered as a hybrid assembler.
(23) The Commission noted, that according to the actual assembling activities of Sangal, the company cannot be considered a hybrid assembler. Moreover, the fact that Sangal would be negotiating an order to produce conventional bicycles in the future does not affect its current activity, which is the object of the present examination. Indeed, if the future assembling activity of conventional bicycles is confirmed, it would have only a prospective effect on the performance of the company.
(24) Moreover, the Commission noted that the present Implementing Decision does not preclude Sangal from lodging a new request for an exemption authorisation in the future, according to the conditions set out in Articles 4 and 5 of the exemption Regulation.
(25) For the above, the findings of the examination of the request as referred to in recital (18) are confirmed and the request of Sangal dismissed,
HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:
Article 1
The request for change in references of the exemption authorisation granted by Decision 2003/899/EC to the party listed in the table of this Article is hereby rejected.
Party for which the change in references is rejected
|
TARIC additional code |
Name |
Address |
||
|
A407 |
Sangal – Indústria de Veículos Lda |
|
Article 2
The exemption authorisation granted by Decision 2003/899/EC to the party listed in the table of this Article is hereby withdrawn.
Party for which the exemption authorisation is withdrawn
|
TARIC additional code |
Name |
Address |
||
|
A407 |
Sangal – Indústria de Veículos Lda |
|
Article 3
This Decision is addressed to the Member States and to the party listed in Article 2 and published in the
Official Journal of the European Union
.
Article 4
This Decision shall take effect upon its notification.
Done at Brussels, 13 February 2023.
For the Commission
Valdis DOMBROVSKIS
Executive Vice-President
(1)
OJ L 176, 30.6.2016, p. 21
.
(2)
OJ L 16, 21.1.2020, p. 7
.
(3)
OJ L 17, 21.1.1997, p. 17
.
(4) Council Regulation (EC) No 71/97 of 10 January 1997 extending the definitive anti-dumping duty imposed by Regulation (EEC) No 2474/93 on bicycles originating in the People’s Republic of China to imports of certain bicycle parts from the People’s Republic of China, and levying the extended duty on such imports registered under Regulation (EC) No 703/96 (
OJ L 16, 18.1.1997, p. 55
).
(5)
OJ C 45, 13.2.1997, p. 3
,
OJ C 112, 10.4.1997, p. 9
,
OJ C 220, 19.7.1997, p. 6
,
OJ L 193, 22.7.1997, p. 32
,
OJ L 334, 5.12.1997, p. 37
,
OJ C 378, 13.12.1997, p. 2
,
OJ C 217, 11.7.1998, p. 9
,
OJ C 37, 11.2.1999, p. 3
,
OJ C 186, 2.7.1999, p. 6
,
OJ C 216, 28.7.2000, p. 8
,
OJ C 170, 14.6.2001, p. 5
,
OJ C 103, 30.4.2002, p. 2
,
OJ C 35, 14.2.2003, p. 3
,
OJ C 43, 22.2.2003, p. 5
,
OJ C 54, 2.3.2004, p. 2
,
OJ L 343, 19.11.2004, p. 23
,
OJ C 299, 4.12.2004, p. 4
,
OJ L 17, 21.1.2006, p. 16
,
OJ L 313, 14.11.2006, p. 5
,
OJ L 81, 20.3.2008, p. 73
,
OJ C 310, 5.12.2008, p. 19
,
OJ L 19, 23.1.2009, p. 62
,
OJ L 314, 1.12.2009, p. 106
,
OJ L 136, 24.5.2011, p. 99
,
OJ L 343, 23.12.2011, p. 86
,
OJ L 119, 23.4.2014, p. 67
,
OJ L 132, 29.5.2015, p. 32
,
OJ L 331, 17.12.2015, p. 30
,
OJ L 47, 24.2.2017, p. 13
,
OJ L 79, 22.3.2018, p. 31
,
OJ L 171, 26.6.2019, p. 117
,
OJ L 138, 30.4.2020, p. 8
,
OJ L 158, 20.5.2020, p. 7
,
OJ L 325, 7.10.2020, p. 74
,
OJ L 140, 23.4.2021, p. 1
.,
OJ L 83, 10.3.2022, p. 39
,
OJ L 102, 30.3.2022, p. 16
,
OJ L 229, 5.9.2022, p. 69
.
(6) Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/1461 of 26 August 2022 concerning exemptions from the extended anti-dumping duty on certain bicycle parts originating in the People’s Republic of China pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 88/97 (
OJ L 229, 5.9.2022, p. 69
).
(7) Commission Decision 2003/899/EC of 28 November 2003 granting certain parties an exemption from the extension to certain bicycle parts, by Council Regulation (EC) No 71/97, of the anti-dumping duty on bicycles originating in the People’s Republic of China imposed by Council Regulation (EEC) No 2474/93, and maintained by Council Regulation (EC) No 1524/2000, and lifting the suspension of the payment of the anti-dumping duty extended to certain bicycle parts originating in the People’s Republic of China granted to certain parties pursuant to Commission Regulation (EC) No 88/97 (
OJ L 336, 23.12.2003, p. 101
).
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