Judgments nº T-835/17 of Tribunal General de la Unión Europea, March 12, 2020

• Resolution Date: March 12, 2020
• Issuing Organization: Tribunal General de la Unión Europea
• Decision Number: T-835/17

(Dumping - Imports of hot-rolled flat products of iron, non-alloy or other alloy steel originating in Brazil, Iran, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine - Termination of the proceedings against imports originating in Serbia - Determination of injury - Cumulative assessment of the effects of imports from more than one country - Article 3(4) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1036 - Termination without measures - Article 9(2) of Regulation 2016/1036 - Final disclosure of the essential facts and considerations on the basis of which it is intended to recommend the imposition of definitive measures or the termination of an investigation or proceedings without the imposition of measures - Article 20(2) of Regulation 2016/1036) In Case T-835/17,

Eurofer, European Steel Association, AISBL, established in Brussels (Belgium), represented by J. Killick and G. Forwood, lawyers,

applicant,

v

European Commission, represented by T. Maxian Rusche, N. Kuplewatzky and A. Demeneix, acting as Agents,

defendant,

supported by

HBIS Group Serbia Iron & Steel LLC Belgrade, represented by R. Luff, lawyer,

intervener,

APPLICATION pursuant to Article 263 TFEU seeking the annulment in part of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/1795 of 5 October 2017 imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty on imports of certain hot-rolled flat products of iron, non-alloy or other alloy steel originating in Brazil, Iran, Russia and Ukraine and terminating the investigation on imports of certain hot-rolled flat products of iron, non-alloy or other alloy steel originating in Serbia (OJ 2017 L 258, p. 24),

THE GENERAL COURT (Eighth Chamber),

composed of A.M. Collins, R. Barents and J. Passer (Rapporteur), Judges,

Registrar: S. Bukšek Tomac, Administrator,

having regard to the written part of the procedure and further to the hearing on 7 November 2019,

gives the following

Judgment

Background to the dispute

1 Following a complaint lodged on 23 May 2016 by the applicant, Eurofer, European Steel Association, AISBL, the European Commission initiated an anti-dumping investigation with regard to imports into the European Union of certain hot-rolled flat products of iron, non-alloy or other alloy steel originating in Brazil, Iran, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine.

2 On 7 July 2016 the Commission published a notice of initiation of an anti-dumping procedure in respect of the imports referred to in paragraph 1 above (OJ 2016 C 246, p. 7) under 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 (OJ 2016 L 176, p. 21; ‘the basic Regulation’).

3 The investigation of dumping and injury covered the period from 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016 (‘the Investigation Period’ or ‘IP’). The examination of trends relevant for the assessment of injury covered the period from 1 January 2013 to the end of the Investigation Period.

4 In the notice of initiation of the investigation, the Commission stated that it expected to select a sample of the interested parties in accordance with Article 17 of the basic Regulation. The final sample of EU producers consisted of six such producers located in five Member States accounting for over 45% of production within the European Union, namely:

- ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe AG, Duisburg, Germany;

- Tata Steel IJmuiden BV, Velsen-Noord, Netherlands;

- Tata Steel UK Limited, Port Talbot, South Wales, United Kingdom;

- ArcelorMittal Mediterranée SAS, Fos-sur-Mer, France;

- ArcelorMittal Atlantique Et Lorraine, Dunkirk, France;

- ArcelorMittal España SA, Gozón, Spain.

5 Verification visits pursuant to Article 16 of the basic Regulation were carried out at the premises of the producers in question.

6 On 4 April 2017 the Commission informed all interested parties by means of an information document (‘the Information Document’) that it would continue the investigation without imposing provisional measures on imports into the European Union of the product in question originating in the countries concerned. The Information Document contained the essential facts and considerations on the basis of which the Commission had decided to continue the investigation without the imposition of provisional measures. Following the disclosure of that document, interested parties made written submissions providing comments on the information and findings disclosed. Interested parties who requested to be heard were also granted a hearing.

7 On 4 May 2017 a hearing in the presence of the Hearing Officer in trade proceedings was held with the applicant. On 8 June 2017 a second hearing was held with the applicant.

8 Between 29 May and 9 June 2017 five additional verification visits were carried out at the premises of the following interested parties in the European Union:

- ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe AG, Duisburg (EU producer);

- HUS Ltd, Plovdiv, Bulgaria (user, member of a consortium named ‘Consortium for Imports of Hot-Rolled Flats’);

- Technotubi SpA, Alfianello, Italy (user, member of the consortium referred to above);

- an Italian user that was not a member of the consortium and which had requested anonymity;

- the applicant.

9 Following the final disclosure on 17 July 2017 (‘Final Disclosure’), another hearing in the presence of the Hearing Officer in trade proceedings was held on 27 July 2017 with the applicant.

10 Following a hearing on 3 August 2017 with an Iranian exporting producer, the Commission revised the dumping calculation and the calculations based on it. The parties were informed of that revision by means of an additional Final Disclosure dated 4 August 2017.

11 On 5 October 2017 the Commission adopted Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/1795 imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty on imports of certain hot-rolled flat products of iron, non-alloy or other alloy steel originating in Brazil, Iran, Russia and Ukraine and terminating the investigation on imports of certain hot-rolled flat products of iron, non-alloy or other alloy steel originating in Serbia (OJ 2017 L 258, p. 24, corrigendum OJ 2017 L 319, p. 81 ‘the Contested Regulation’).

12 Article 2 of the Contested Regulation provides that ‘the anti-dumping proceeding concerning imports into the Union of the product concerned originating in Serbia is hereby terminated in accordance with Article 9(2) of the basic Regulation’.

Procedure and forms of order sought

13 The applicant brought the present action by document lodged at the Registry of the General Court on 29 December 2017.

14 On 21 March 2018 the Commission lodged its defence.

15 By documents lodged at the Court Registry on 17 and 18 April 2018, the intervener, HBIS Group Serbia Iron & Steel LLC Belgrade, and the Republic of Serbia respectively sought leave to intervene in the present proceedings in support of the forms of order sought by the Commission.

16 By document lodged on 14 May 2018, the applicant requested, pursuant to Article 144(2) of the Rules of Procedure of the General Court, that certain confidential information contained in Annexes A.25, A.30 and A.31 to the application not be disclosed to the intervener or to the Republic of Serbia, in the event that they should be given leave to intervene in the present proceedings.

17 The applicant lodged its reply on 3 July 2018.

18 By order of 6 July 2018, the Eighth Chamber of the General Court dismissed the Republic of Serbia’s application to intervene.

19 By order of 12 July 2018, the President of the Eighth Chamber of the General Court granted the intervener leave to intervene and provisionally limited disclosure of the application to the non-confidential version produced by the applicant, pending the submission of any observations by the intervener on the application for confidential treatment.

20 By document lodged on 31 July 2018, the intervener informed the Court that it had no objections to the confidential treatment of the information identified by the applicant, with the exception of certain information on pages 779 to 781 of Annex A.25 to the application.

21 By document lodged at the Court Registry on 13 September 2018, the intervener lodged a statement in intervention.

22 On 14 September 2018 the Commission lodged its rejoinder.

23 By order of 5 October 2018, the President of the Eighth Chamber of the General Court rejected the application for confidential treatment of the information referred to in paragraph 20 above and ordered that a new non-confidential version of the application be provided to the intervener.

24 By a document lodged at the Court Registry on 25 October 2018, the applicant produced a non-confidential version of the application in accordance with the order of 5 October 2018.

25 By a document lodged at the Court Registry on 23 November 2018, the intervener lodged a supplementary statement in intervention on the non-confidential version of the application.

26 On 20 December 2018 the applicant and the Commission filed their observations.

27 By document lodged at the Court Registry on 30 January 2019, the applicant requested, pursuant to Article 106 of the Rules of Procedure, to be heard in the oral part of the procedure.

28 The applicant claims that the Court should:

- annul Article 2 of the Contested Regulation;

- order the Commission to pay the costs.

29 The Commission contends that the Court should:

- dismiss the action as being inadmissible;

- in the alternative, dismiss the action as being unfounded;

- order the applicant to pay the costs.

30 The intervener contends that the Court should:

- dismiss the action as being inadmissible;

- in the alternative, dismiss the action as being unfounded;

- order the applicant to pay the costs.

Law

Admissibility

31 The Commission, without formally raising an objection of inadmissibility by a separate document within the meaning of Article 130(1) of the Rules of Procedure and supported by the intervener, claims that the action is inadmissible for two reasons. First, the Commission claims that Article 2...