§ 8.27 p.m.
§ The Under-Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Mr. Anthony Grant)I beg to move,
That the Anti-Dumping Duty (No. 3) Order 1971 (S.I. 1971, No. 1048), dated 23rd June, 1971, a copy of which was laid before this House on 25th June, be approved.The Order, which has been made under the Customs Duties (Dumping and Subsidies) Act, 1969, imposes an anti-dumping duty of £3.39 per ton on ammonium nitrate originating in Romania and imported into the United Kingdom between 1st April, 1971 and 22nd June, 1971 in- 128 clusive. It also revokes the Anti-Dumping (Provisional Charge to Duty) (No. 2) Order, 1971, which imposed provisional charges to anti-dumping duty of £5 per ton on Romanian ammonium nitrate and £6 per ton on calcium ammonium nitrate for a period of three months from 1st April, 1971.The making of the present Order and of the Order imposing the provisional charges, now revoked, is a further follow-up of anti-dumping action that was taken in May, 1970, against dumped imports of calcium ammonium nitrate from six countries in Western Europe. In announcing this action the Department stated that, if evidence were received of any other significant imports of calcium ammonium nitrate or of the two other straight nitrogenous fertilisers, ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulphonitrate, at dumped prices, urgent consideration would be given to extending anti-dumping action to those imports. Accordingly, anti-dumping duties were imposed later in the year on ammonium sulphonitrate from West Germany and calcium ammonium nitrate from South Africa.
When our import statistics showed significant imports of ammonium nitrate and calcium ammonium nitrate from Romania in February this year at apparently dumped prices, we imposed provisional anti-dumping charges while we investigated the matter. The investigation showed that the imports of ammonium nitrate which took place from 1st April onwards were dumped by a margin of £3.39 per ton but that the calcium ammonium nitrate imported from Romania in this period was not dumped to any significant extent. Accordingly, £3.39 per ton of the anti-dumping charges paid on the ammonium nitrate will be retained in payment of the duty imposed under this Order. The balance of the £5 charge together with charges collected on the calcium ammonium nitrate is being refunded.
No anti-dumping duty is imposed on any imports of these fertilisers from Romania after 22nd June because the importer has given satisfactory undertakings that there will be no further imports at dumped prices.
I invite the House to approve this Order.
§ Question put and agreed to.