Page 4 - RB-85-18-2

NEWS
EU Orders Registration of Chinese Truck and Bus Tyre Imports
New 3PMSF Labelling Regulations Now in Force
The European Commission has given notice of a Regulation (EU) 2018/163 dated February 1, 2018 making imports of new and retreaded tyres for buses or lorries originating in the People’s Republic of China subject to regulation.
Published in the Official Journal of the European Union dated 2 February, 2018, the new regulation relates to the anti- dumping and anti-subsidy proceedings initiated on 11 August 2017 and 14 October 2017 respectively.
According to the basic anti- dumping and anti-subsidy regulations the Commission has the power to direct the customs authorities to register imports, so that measures can be subsequently applied to those imports. According to the complainant in the case – the coalition against unfair tyre imports – registration is justified because the tyres in question are being both dumped and subsidised, because this action is causing damage to EU industry and because the action is difficult to repair.
The dumping part of the request for registration was upheld on several grounds, firstly that the importers of Chinese tyres
were aware, or should have
been aware, of the alleged dumping practices, the
extent of it and the alleged
injury to the industry at
that particular point in
time, secondly because the volume of imports of the
tyres in question increased
by 14.3 per cent in the
period from April to
September 2017 when compared to the volume of imports during the same period in 2016, and finally because the volume of the dumped imports and other circumstances (such as the decline in the Union industry's sales, turnover, employment and profit
notably on the lower market segment) were considered likely to seriously undermine the remedial effect of any definitive duties, unless such duties were applied retroactively.
As regards subsidisation, the Commission said it had at its disposal sufficient evidence
that imports of truck and bus tyres from China were being subsidised. The alleged subsidy practices consist, namely, of direct transfer of funds and potential direct transfers of funds or liabilities, government revenue forgone or not collected, and government provision of goods or services for less than adequate remuneration. This includes, for example, evidence of the existence of various grants, preferential loans and directed credits by State-owned banks as well as private banks, export credits and export guarantees and insurances; government provision of land, energy, water and raw materials for producing the product concerned; and income tax reductions and exemptions, import tariff rebates and VAT exemptions and rebates. The fact that these imports will now need to be registered means that should the investigation result in findings leading to the imposition of anti-dumping
and/or countervailing duties those duties could be levied retroactively. The amount of possible future liability has been set at the level of underselling estimated on the basis of the complaint, namely 26 -37 per cent based on the CIF import value of
the products concerned.
The Regulation concerning the registration of imports came into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, namely 3 Feb, 2018.
Since the 1st of January 2018, the manufacturer labelling of winter retreads for commercial vehicles and their trailers with the 3PMSF pictogram has been mandatory. This applies when these retreads are used on public roads in Germany and certain other European countries. It means that retreaders active in those countries need to expand their basic approval procedure in accordance with ECE-R 109. As a leading material supplier, Kraiburg Austria has not only integrated approved patterns into the product range early, but has also kept its customers informed, accompanied them in the process and, above all, supplied all the necessary documents to customers in good time to enable them to continue to operate safely.
"For the extension application, all that needs to be done is to send an informal letter to the competent Technical Service that performed the basic approval in accordance with ECE-R 109," explained Christoph Priewasser, Product Manager at Kraiburg Austria. The Technical Service then makes a formal application to the
competent approval authority on behalf of the retreading specialist. The latter obtains the test reports required for this from Prüflabor Nord. "For documenting the measures taken, we recommend our customers to file the pattern information with their own QM documentation, so that it is already available when the customer receives the approval notice from the Technical Service. The design information can, of course, be requested from ourselves at any time", he added.
In this context, Priewasser explicitly pointed out that the use of retreads in Germany is funded as part of the de minimis scheme. The support covers 80 per cent of the eligible expenditure, which varies between 50 per cent and 100 per cent of the purchase, rental or lease price of the tyre, according to the axle position. Information on which Kraiburg tyre treads are currently 3PMSF certified and other information about the de minimis support programme and Kraiburg Austria are available at www.kraiburg- austria.com.
4JET Appoints CTO
4JET Technologies GmbH (Alsdorf, Germany) has appointed Robert Hillmann as Chief Technical Officer. Hillmann previously served as Head of the Technology Department for a leading supplier of industrial laser systems for the automotive industry. In his new role at 4JET Technologies, he will be responsible for R+D,
engineering and project management.
4 Retreading Business