The European Commission (EC) decided to terminate the circumvention investigation of hand pallet trucks imported from Viet Nam due to lack of evidence.

The Trade Remedies Authority of Viet Nam, under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said on Tuesday that the authority received this information from the Viet Nam Trade Office in Belgium.

The commission published Implementing Regulation No. 2018/260 OJ L49 on February 21, 2018, terminating the circumvention investigation. The regulation came into effect from February 23.

According to the EC, the registration of imports of hand pallet trucks and their essential parts consigned from Viet Nam, whether declared as originating in Viet Nam or not, should be discontinued and the regulation be repealed.

The investigation, which began on July 19 last year, aimed to determine if the import of hand pallet trucks and their parts, including chassis and hydraulics, into the European Union circumvented regulations. The investigation period spanned from January 1, 2011, to June 30, 2017.

The investigation was conducted following a petition from PR Industrial SRL and Toyota Material Handling Europe, manufacturers of hand pallet trucks in the European Union.

The petitioners said they had witnessed a change in the pattern of trade involving exports from the Chinese mainland and Viet Nam to the European Union following the increase of duties on the product without sufficient due cause or economic justification for such a change other than the duty.

This change appeared to stem from consignments of the product concerned via Viet Nam to the European Union after having undergone assembly in Viet Nam.

The applicants provided evidence showing that the assembly operations constituted circumvention as Chinese parts made up more than 60 per cent of the total value of the assembled product and the value added during assembly was lower than 25 per cent of the manufacturing cost. — VNS