The European Commission on Wednesday launched an anti-dumping probe into wireless modems imported from China.

"The commission has at its disposal sufficient prima facie evidence that imports of the product concerned originating in the People's Republic of China are being dumped, and that the exporters practice dumping," the European Union (EU) trade regulator said in its official journal.

The decision was taken after Belgium's Option, the sole maker of the wireless modems in the EU, lodged a complaint to the commission.

The product concerned is wireless wide area networking (WWAN) modems with a radio antenna and providing Internet Protocol (IP) data connectivity for computing devices and including Wi-Fi routers comprising a WWAN modem.

Since China is considered to be a non-market economy country by the EU and in the absence of known production of the product concerned outside the EU and China, the complainant established normal value for the country concerned on the basis of the prices actually paid or payable in the EU for the like product duly adjusted where necessary to include a reasonable profit margin.

The allegation of dumping is based on a comparison of the normal value thus established with the export prices of the product under investigation when sold for export to the EU. On this basis the dumping margin calculated is significant for the exporting country concerned, namely in excess of 150 percent.

The commission also decided to make imports of Chinese wireless modems subject to customs registration, so that measures may subsequently be applied against those imports from the date of such registration.

The EU anti-dumping investigation normally takes no more than a year, and in any case must be completed within 15 months, after which the EU governments have the final say on whether to impose definite anti-dumping duties for five years.

However, during the investigation period, the commission may, within 60 days to nine months, impose provisional duties, which may last for six to nine months.

Under EU rules, before taking provisional anti-dumping measures, the commission must consult its member states, which are set to be divided on the issue.

Only one week ago, the EU launched an anti-dumping probe into imports of ceramic tiles originating in China.

China has been repeatedly opposed to any abuse of anti-dumping measures against its products by the EU.

(Xinhua News Agency July 1, 2010)