Judgment of the General Court Eighth Chamber, Extended Composition of 14 September 2022, Methanol Holdings Trinidad v Commission, T-744/19

• Date: 14 September 2022
• Year: 2022

41

Finally, the Court considers the Lithuanian practice at issue in the present case to be contrary to the

principle of fiscal neutrality in so far as it implies that purchasers of immovable property must bear

the burden of the input VAT, in particular as the Republic of Lithuania chose not to make use of the

option of setting up, for the situation here, a reverse charge mechanism intended precisely to counter

the risk of insolvency of the VAT debtor. Furthermore, such a practice is liable to restrict the circle of

potential purchasers and therefore runs counter to the objective pursued by the compulsory sale

procedure, namely the optimal realisation of the debtor’s assets in order to satisfy his or her credito rs

to the greatest possible extent. It also tends to isolate economic operators in financial difficulties and

to hamper their ability to carry out transactions, in breach of the principle of fiscal neutrality, as that

principle precludes distinctions between taxable persons on the basis of their financial situation.

IX. COMMON COMMERCIAL POLICY: ANTI-DUMPING

Judgment of the General Court (Eighth Chamber, Extended Composition) of 14 September

2022, Methanol Holdings (Trinidad) v Commission, T-744/19

Link to the full text of the judgment

Dumping – Imports of mixtures of urea and ammonium nitrate originating in Russia, Trinidad and To bago

and the United States – Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1688 – Article 3(1) to (3) and (5) to (8) of

Regulation (EU) 2016/1036 – Sales through relate d companies – Construction of the export price – Injury

to the Union industry – Calculation of price undercutting – Causal link – Article 9(4) of Regulation

2016/1036 – Calculation of the injury margin – Injury elimination

Following a complaint, the European Commission adopted Implementing Regulation 2019/1688

84

imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty on imports of mixtures of urea and ammonium nitrate

originating in Russia, Trinidad and Tobago and the United States of America.

The applicant, Methanol Holdings (Trinidad) Ltd, is a company established in Trinidad and Tobago

which produces and exports the product concerned to the European Union through a related

importer. It brought an action for annulment of the contested regulation.

In dismissing that action, the General Court confirms the possibility of using con structed export prices

for the purposes of calculating price undercutting. It also applies and clarifies the case-law relating to

the Commission’s obligation, when calculating the price undercutting margins of imports subject to

anti-dumping investigations, to make a fair price comparison at the same level of trade, in order to

assess the existence of injury suffered by the Union industry as a result of those imports.

84

Commission Implementing Reg ulation (EU) 2019/1688 of 8 October 2019 imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty and definitively collecting

the provisional duty imposed on i mports of mixtures of urea and ammonium ni trate originating in Russia, Trinidad and Tobago and the

United States of America (OJ 2019 L 258, p. 21; ‘the contested regulation’).