On 24 September 2024, the European Commission (‘the Commission‘) decided to register all imports of products subject to anti-dumping or anti-subsidy investigations. Registration also applies to ongoing investigations for which provisional determinations have not yet been made.

Pursuant to Article 14(5) of the basic anti-dumping Regulation and Article 24(5) of the basic anti-subsidy Regulation, imports are subject to registration following a request by the Union industry, which contains sufficient evidence to justify such action. Imports may also be subject to registration on the Commission’s own initiative.

Such a possibility allows the Commission to order the customs authorities of the Member States to register imports of a product which is the subject of an ongoing anti-dumping or anti-subsidy investigation, so that measures can then be applied against those imports from the date of that registration. It is foreseen that registration will be carried out by the customs authorities of the Member States in accordance with the Commission’s instructions by means of individual implementing regulations.

Until now, such automatic registration has only existed in the context of anti-circumvention investigations. Regarding original investigations, imports were generally recorded only upon justified request by the Union industry. From then on, registrations will be greatly intensified.

The registration of imports of the products under investigation is intended to enable the retroactive collection of anti-dumping and countervailing duties if the legal conditions are met.

While such a decision by the Commission aims to protect the European industry from potential aggravation of injury in the event of an increase in imports subject to unfair dumping or subsidies, it increases uncertainty for European importers, users and distributors, who are very often small and medium-sized companies dependent on third markets. The goods will be registered on the first day of the investigation when, on the contrary, the applicable anti-dumping or countervailing rate will be known for the first time at the time of the provisional measures, nine months later. Such unpredictability will have a significant impact on the cash flow and supply chains of these downstream companies. The question of the Commission’s compliance with WTO rules legitimately arises…

For more information, please refer to the article: Press article – European Commission decision – registration of imports subject to trade defense investigations

***

Our team remains at your disposal for any further information at the following address: brussels@dsavocats.com.