Article 1
An investigation is hereby initiated pursuant to Article 13(3) of Regulation (EC) No 384/96, in order to determine if imports into the Community of hand pallet trucks and their essential parts, i.e. chassis and hydraulics, consigned from Thailand whether originating in Thailand or not and falling within CN code ex 8427 90 00 and ex 8431 20 00 (TARIC codes 8427 90 00 11 and 8431 20 00 11), are circumventing the measures imposed by Regulation (EC) No 1174/2005, as amended by Regulation (EC) No 684/2008. Hand pallet trucks are defined as trucks with wheels supporting lifting fork arms for handling pallets, designed to be manually pushed, pulled and steered, on smooth, level, hard surfaces, by a pedestrian operator using an articulated tiller. The hand pallet trucks are only designed to raise a load, by pumping the tiller, to a height sufficient for transporting and do not have any other additional functions or uses such as for example (i) to move and to lift the loads in order to place them higher or assist in storage of loads (highlifters); (ii) to stack one pallet above the other (stackers); (iii) to lift the load to a working level (scissorlifts); or (iv) to lift and to weigh the loads (weighing trucks).