L118/6 Official Journal of the European Communities 19.5.2000 COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1043/2000 of 18 May 2000 imposing a provisional anti-dumping duty on imports of glycine originating in the People's Republic of China THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 384/96 of 22 December 1995 on protection against dumped imports from countries not members of the European Community (), as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 905/98 (3, and in particular Article 7 thereof, After consulting the Advisory Committee, Whereas: A. PROCEDURE On 24 August 1999, the Commission announced, by a notice (hereinafter referred to as ‘the notice of initiation’) published in the Official Journal of the European Commu- nities (}), the initiation of an anti-dumping proceeding with regard to imports into the Community of glycine originating in the People's Republic of China. This proceeding was initiated following a complaint lodged in July 1999 by the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC), on behalf of the sole Community producer of glycine. The complaint contained evidence of dumping of the said product and of material injury resulting therefrom, which was considered sufficient to justify the initiation of a proceeding. The Commission officially advised the complainant Community producer, exporting producers and im- porters, suppliers and users known to be concerned as well as associations concerned and representatives of the exporting country, of the opening of the proceeding. Interested parties were given an opportunity to make their views known in writing and to request a hearing within the time limit set in the notice of initiation. All parties who so requested were granted a hearing. In order to allow producers in the People's Republic of China to submit a claim for market economy status or individual treatment, if they so wished, the Commission sent market economy statusfindividual treatment claim forms to the Chinese producers known to be concerned. Claims for market economy status were received from four individual companies and one group consisting of two companies (hereinafter considered as one company). The Commission sent questionnaires to all parties known to be concerned. Replies were received from the sole Community producer, the five Chinese companies 56, 6.3.1996, p. 1. o L 0] L 128, 30.4.1998, p. 18. 0] C 239, 24.8.1999, p. 4. that submitted market economy status claims, three Chinese trading companies, one producer in the analogue country and two unrelated importers in the Community. In addition, six users in the Community replied to the questionnaire and provided information which was sufficiently complete and representative to use in the assessment of Community interest. The Commission sought and verified all information it deemed necessary for the purpose of a preliminary determination of dumping, injury and Community interest and carried out verifications at the premises of the following companies: (@) Community producer — Tessenderlo Chemie SA/NV, Brussels, Belgium (b) Importers/users — Scanchem UK Ltd, Macclesfield, United Kingdom, — Friskies Europe, New Malden, United Kingdom, — Aventis CropScience, Lyons, France, — BASF, Ludwigshafen, Germany (c) Analogue country producer — Nitrokemia 2000 Rt., Fiizfogyartelep, Hungary. The investigation of dumping and injury covered the period from 1 July 1998 until 30 June 1999 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the investigation period’). The examination of trends in the context of the injury analysis covered the period from January 1995 to the end of the inves- tigation period (hereinafter referred to as ‘the analysis period). B. PRODUCT UNDER CONSIDERATION PRODUCT AND LIKE 1. Product under consideration The product under consideration is glycine (amino acetic acid). Glycine is produced in varying levels of purity and is used as a taste enhancer, a buffering agent, a chemical intermediate and a metal complexing agent. There are basically two grades of glycine, depending on the purity: the pharmaceutical or medical grade, and the regular grade. The regular grade can be sold, mainly for marketing purposes, under a variety of names such as technical, normal, pure, industry, food, feed grade, etc. Glycine is obtained by chemical synthesis, using either (i) hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and formaldehyde or (i) mono- chloroacetic acid (MCCA) and ammonia.