Article 131: Conduct of Investigations leading to Definitive Determination of Injury

 

  1.         Whenever COTED receives a request for investigation, referred to it under paragraph 9 of Article 126, COTED shall determine whether the information accompanying the request justifies the continuation of investigations and if it is satisfied, cause an investigation to be completed within 12 months but not longer than 18 months after the date of receipt of the request. If COTED is not satisfied that there is sufficient justification to initiate an investigation, it shall inform the applicant in writing of its refusal to investigate.
  1.         Investigations initiated either by a competent authority of a Member State or undertaken by COTED shall be terminated promptly whenever:

(a)        the margin of dumping is determined to be less than two per cent; and

(b) the volume of dumped imports from a particular country is less than three per cent of imports of the like product in the importing Member State, unless countries which individually account for less than three per cent of the imports of the like product into the importing Member State collectively account for more than seven per cent of the imports of the like product in the importing Member State,

and a public notice of the termination of investigations under this paragraph shall be made by the Member State terminating investigations or by COTED, as the case may be.

  1.         The Member States recognise that an investigation into the circumstances of alleged dumping based on a request by another Member State on behalf of a domestic industry will require the full co-operation of the competent authority and the parties alleged to be responsible for dumped imports, in the Member State from which such imports originated, all of whom shall provide relevant information in the time specified in this Article.
  1.         In the conduct of an investigation to determine the existence and effect of dumped imports, competent authorities of the Member States and the parties concerned shall observe the rights of the parties providing information with regard to confidentiality of any information provided and shall not disclose any such information without the prior written approval of the parties providing the information.
  1.         Where an industry within the CSME has suffered injury or faces the threat of serious injury based on evidence of dumped imports by third States, the competent authority for requesting investigation on behalf of the affected industry shall be COTED.
  1.         Nothing in this Article shall be construed so as to prevent an injured party or a Member State from initiating and proceeding with an investigation into alleged dumping having regard to the rights of such parties under international agreements to which they are signatories