§ Mr. MitchellTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what assessment she has made of the impact of(a) the imposition of and (b) the recent removal of EU anti-dumping duties on pig-iron on the British casting industry. [49627]
§ Mrs. RocheThe European Commission introduced anti-dumping measures on imports into the EU of hematite pig-iron from Brazil, Poland, Russia, and the Ukraine from January 1994, and on such imports from the Czech Republic from January 1996.
We advised strongly against such action primarily because we were not satisfied that imports from those countries were the cause of any injury to EU producers of hematite pig-iron and because of the likely detriment to users of that pig-iron in the EU, the foundry industry.
The European Commission's subsequent review of those measures, in essence, confirmed that our concerns were well founded. We therefore welcome the European Commission's repeal of those measures from 9 May 1998. This is likely to benefit the foundry industry in the UK and the rest of the EU.