Regulation (EC) No 88/97 is amended as follows:
(1)
in Article 1, the definitions of ‘extended duty’, ‘assembly operation’ and ‘exempted party’ are replaced by the following respectively:
‘—
“extended duty” means the anti-dumping duty imposed by Regulation (EEC) No 2474/93, as extended by Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 71/97 (hereinafter “the Reference Regulation”), and as maintained by subsequent Regulations,’
‘—
“assembly operation” means an operation in which essential bicycle parts are brought in for the assembly or completion of bicycles or of bicycle parts,’
‘—
“exempted party” means any party whose assembly operations have been found to fall outside the scope of Article 13(2) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1036 ( *1 ) and which has been exempted pursuant to Article 7 or 12 of this Regulation,
( *1 ) 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 L 176, 30.6.2016, p. 21 ).’
"
(2)
the definition of ‘assembler’ is added to Article 1 as follows:
‘—
“assembler” means any party that performs an assembly operation,’;
(3)
the definition of ‘the remedial effect of measures’ is added to Article 1 as follows:
‘—
“the remedial effects of the duty are being undermined”, as referred to in Article 13(2)(c) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1036, in terms of quantities, means that, on a monthly basis, sales of the products resulting from the assembly operations exceed 299 bicycles or 299 units of a single type of essential bicycle parts.’;
(4)
the title of Article 2 is replaced by the following:
‘Article 2
Exemption and suspension of imports from the extended duty’;
(5)
Article 2(2) is replaced by the following:
‘2. The payment of the extended duty on imports of essential bicycle parts shall be suspended where they are declared for free circulation by, or on behalf of, a party under examination.’;
(6)
the address indicated in Article 3(1) is replaced by the following:
‘European Commission
Directorate-General for Trade
Directorate G Trade Defence
Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 200
1049 Bruxelles/Brussel
BELGIQUE/BELGIË
Email: [email protected]’;
(7)
Article 3(2) is replaced by the following:
‘2. Upon receipt of a request, the Commission shall acknowledge receipt forthwith.’;
(8)
Article 4(1)(b) is replaced by the following:
‘(b)
it provides prima facie evidence that the applicant’s assembly operations fall outside the scope of Article 13(2) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1036; and’;
(9)
Article 4(1)(c) is replaced by the following:
‘(c)
the applicant has not, within the 36 months preceding the request, been refused authorisation of exemption pursuant to this Article or Article 7(3) or (4), or had an exemption revoked pursuant to Article 10.’;
(10)
Article 4(4) is replaced by the following:
‘4. Where a request is held inadmissible, it shall be rejected by a Decision in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 13(4) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1036.’;
(11)
Article 5 is replaced by the following:
‘Article 5
Suspension of payment of the duties
1. As from the date of receipt of a request that has been declared admissible pursuant to Article 4, and pending a decision on its merits pursuant to Articles 6 and 7, payment of the customs debt in respect of the extended duty pursuant to Article 2(1) of the Reference Regulation shall be suspended in respect of any imports of essential bicycle parts declared for free circulation by the party under examination. A period of not less than 6 months prior to the receipt of the request is taken into consideration in order to establish prima facie compliance with the conditions set out in Article 4(1) and (2).
2. The competent authorities of the Member States shall make the suspension of payment of the extended duty subject to the provision of a guarantee of the extended duty in accordance with Title III, chapter 2 of the Union Customs Code ( *2 ) , in the event that the request is subsequently held inadmissible pursuant to Article 4(4), withdrawn pursuant to Article 7(5), or rejected pursuant to Article 7(3) or (4).
( *2 ) Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 October 2013 laying down the Union Customs Code ( OJ L 269, 10.10.2013, p. 1 ).’;"
(12)
Article 6(2) is replaced by the following:
‘2. Any party under examination shall ensure that, at any time, essential bicycle parts which it declares for free circulation are either used in its assembly operations, or assembly of other products, destroyed, or re-exported. It shall keep records of the essential bicycle parts delivered to it – and of the use made of them. These records shall be retained for 5 years from the date of suspension. The records and any necessary additional evidence and information shall be communicated to the Commission upon request.’;
(13)
Article 7 is replaced by the following:
‘Article 7
Decision
1. Where the facts as finally ascertained show that the applicant’s assembly operations do not fall within the scope of Article 13(2) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1036, the applicant’s exemption from the extended duty shall be authorised in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 13(4) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1036.
2. The decision shall have retroactive effect as from the date of receipt of the duly substantiated request referred to in Article 4(1). The applicant’s customs debt pursuant to Article 2(1) of the Reference Regulation shall be considered void from that date.
3. Where the criteria for exemption are not fulfilled, the request shall be rejected in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 13(4) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1036 and the suspension of the payment of the extended duty referred to in Article 5 shall be lifted.
4. Any breach of obligations under Article 6(2) or any false declaration relating to a decision may constitute a reason for rejecting the request.
5. Where a request for exemption is withdrawn, it shall be considered not to have been lodged and the suspension of the payment of the extended duty referred to in Article 5 shall be lifted.’;
(14)
Article 8(1)(a) is replaced by the following:
‘(a)
its assembly operations remain outside the scope of Article 13(2) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1036;’;
(15)
Article 8(2) is replaced by the following:
‘2. An exempted party shall keep records of the essential bicycle parts of which it receives deliveries and of the use made of them. It shall retain those records and appropriate supporting evidence for 5 years. Those records shall be made available to the Commission on request.’;
(16)
Article 9 is replaced by the following:
‘Article 9
Review
1. The Commission may on its own initiative review the situation of an exempted party to verify that it respects its obligations under Article 8, including any matters related thereto.
2. A review shall consist of an examination covering a period which may be shorter than 6 months.
3. A review shall be initiated by Commission regulation after informing Member States. As of the date of the initiation of the review, imports from the party under review shall be registered pursuant to Article 14(5) of the basic Regulation, to ensure that, should the review result in a revocation of the exemption, measures may subsequently be applied against those imports from the date of such registration.
4. If an exempted party engages in customs misdeclaration of essential bicycle parts of Chinese origin, the Commission may initiate a review within the meaning of the first paragraph.
5. Investigations shall be carried out by the Commission. The Commission may be assisted by customs authorities and the investigation shall be concluded by Commission regulation acting in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 15(3) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1036.’;
(17)
Article 10 is replaced by the following:
‘Article 10
Revocation of an exemption
An exemption shall be revoked in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 13(4) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1036, after the exempted party has been given an opportunity to comment:
—
where a review has shown that the exempted party’s assembly operations fall within the scope of Article 13(2) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1036, or
—
where the exempted party is not using essential bicycle parts for the assembly operations in quantities above the threshold set out in Article 14(c), including where the party has been wound up or has otherwise ceased its assembly operations, or
—
at any rate, in the event of a repeated customs misdeclaration of any bicycle part, or
—
in the event of a breach of the party’s obligations pursuant to Article 8, or
—
in the event of a lack of cooperation after the adoption of the exemption decision.’;
(18)
Article 13 is replaced by the following:
‘Article 13
Procedural provisions
The relevant provisions of Regulation (EU) 2016/1036 concerning:
—
the conduct of investigations (Article 6(2), (3), (4) and (5)),
—
verification visits (Article 16),
—
non-cooperation (Article 18), and
—
confidentiality (Article 19),
shall apply to examinations pursuant to this Regulation.’
;
(19)
the first paragraph of Article 14 is replaced by the following:
‘Where imports of essential bicycle parts are declared for free circulation by a person other than an exempted party or a party under examination pursuant to Article 5, as from the date of entry into force of the Reference Regulation, they shall be exempted from the application of the extended duty if declared in accordance with the TARIC structure in Annex III and subject to the conditions laid down in Article 254 of the Union Customs Code, which shall be applicable mutatis mutandis , where:’;
(20)
Article 14(b) is replaced by the following:
‘(b)
the essential bicycle parts are delivered to another holder of an authorisation for the end-use procedure within the meaning of Article 254 of the Union Customs Code; or’;
(21)
the first sentence of Article 14(c) is replaced by the following:
‘on a monthly basis, less than 300 units per type of essential bicycle parts are, on average, either declared for free circulation by a party or are delivered to it. The time limit to calculate that average will not exceed 12 months, whereby the first period starts from the date of entry into force of the concerned end-use authorisation, and will in no case exceed its period of validity.’;
(22)
Article 15(2) is replaced by the following:
‘2. Where the parties referred to in paragraph 1 are found to have declared for free circulation or received deliveries of quantities of essential bicycle parts above the threshold set out in Article 14(c), or where they fail to cooperate with the examination, they shall no longer be presumed to fall outside the scope of Article 13(2) of Regulation (EU) 2016/1036, and any exemption authorisation granted to such parties shall be revoked retrospectively. After the party concerned has been given an opportunity to comment, those findings shall be notified to the competent authorities of the Member States.’;
(23)
in Article 15(3) the word ‘may’ is replaced by ‘shall’;
(24)
in Article 18 the word ‘ Communities ’ is replaced by ‘ Union ’;
(25)
Annexes I, II and III are replaced by Annexes I, II and III to this Regulation;
(26)
Annex IV is repealed.