Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/796 of 24 April 2025 imposing a definitive countervailing duty on imports of mobile access equipment originating in the People’s Republic of China and amending Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/45 imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty on imports of mobile access equipment originating in the People’s Republic of China

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Regulation (EU) 2016/1037 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2016 on protection against subsidised imports from countries not members of the European Union (1) (‘the basic Regulation’) and in particular Article 15 thereof,

Whereas:

(1) On 27 March 2024, the European Commission (‘the Commission’) initiated an anti-subsidy investigation with regard to imports of mobile access equipment (‘MAE’) originating in the People’s Republic of China (‘the country concerned’ or ‘the PRC’) on the basis of Article 10 of the basic Regulation. It published a Notice of Initiation in the Official Journal of the European Union (2) (‘the Notice of Initiation’).

(2) The Commission initiated the investigation following a complaint lodged on 13 February 2024 by the ‘Coalition to Restore a Level Playing Field in the EU Mobile Access Equipment Sector’ (‘CMAE’) or (‘the complainant’). The complaint was made on behalf of the Union industry of MAE in the sense of Article 10(6) of the basic Regulation. The complaint contained evidence of subsidies and of resulting injury that was sufficient to justify the initiation of the investigation.

(3) Prior to the initiation of the anti-subsidy investigation, the Commission notified the Government of China (‘GOC’) (3) that it had received a properly documented complaint and invited GOC for consultations in accordance with Article 10(7) of the basic Regulation. Consultations were held on 25 March 2024. However, no mutually agreed solution was reached.

(4) On 13 November 2024, the Commission initiated a separate anti-dumping investigation of the same product originating in the PRC (‘the separate anti-dumping investigation’). On 9 January 2025, the Commission imposed definitive anti-dumping duties and definitively collected provisional duties imposed on imports of the product concerned originating in the PRC (‘the definitive anti-dumping Regulation’) (4). The duties range from 20,6 % to 54,9 %. The analysis of the economic situation of the Union industry of the present Regulation is mutatis mutandis identical to the findings in the separate anti-dumping investigation, since the definition of the Union industry, the sampled Union producers, the period considered, and the investigation period are the same in both investigations.

(5) By Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2725 of 24 October 2024, the Commission made imports of the product concerned subject to registration for the purpose of ensuring that, should the investigation result in findings leading to the imposition of countervailing, those duties can, if the necessary conditions are fulfilled, be levied retroactively on the registered imports in accordance with the applicable legal provisions (‘the registration Regulation’) (5).

(6) In the Notice of Initiation, the Commission invited interested parties to contact it in order to participate in the investigation. In addition, the Commission specifically informed the complainant, other known Union producers, the known exporting producers and the Chinese authorities, known importers, and users about the initiation of the investigation and invited them to participate.

(7) Interested parties had an opportunity to comment on the initiation of the investigation and to request a hearing with the Commission and/or the Hearing Officer in trade proceedings.

(8) The Commission did not receive any comments on initiation or request for a hearing.

(9) In the Notice of Initiation, the Commission stated that it might sample the interested parties in accordance with Article 27 of the basic Regulation.

(10) In its Notice of Initiation, the Commission stated that it had provisionally selected a sample of Union producers. The Commission selected the sample on the basis of the largest representative volume of sales and of production of the like product in the Union in the investigation period, which could reasonably be investigated within the time available.

(11) This sample consisted of three Union producers which accounted for 55 % of the estimated total production in the Union and 52 % of sales of all Union producers of the like product on the Union market. By selecting the three largest Union producers and sellers in the investigation period, located in two different Member States, the Commission covered the largest representative volume of production and sales which could reasonably be investigated within the time available, in line with Article 27(1) of the basic Regulation. The Commission invited interested parties to comment on the provisional sample. No comments were received. The Commission concluded that the sample of Union producers was therefore representative of the Union industry.

(12) To decide whether sampling was necessary and, if so, to select a sample, the Commission asked unrelated importers to provide the information specified in Annex 1 of the Notice of Initiation within 7 days of the date of publication of the Notice. No importer provided the information and cooperated with the investigation.

(13) To decide whether sampling was necessary and, if so, to select a sample, the Commission asked all exporting producers in the PRC to provide the information specified in the Notice of Initiation. In addition, the Commission asked the Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the European Union to identify and/or contact other exporting producers, if any, that could be interested in participating in the investigation.

(14) Sixteen exporting producers in the country concerned provided the requested information and agreed to be included in the sample. In accordance with Article 27(1) of the basic Regulation, the Commission selected a sample of four (groups of) companies which could reasonably be investigated within the time available. The selection of the sample was based on the largest representative volume of production, sales or exports to the Union during the investigation period which can reasonably be investigated within the time available. The Commission also considered the potential eligibility of the groups of exporting producers for the subsidy schemes included in the memorandum on sufficiency of evidence (6), hence also looked at production and domestic sales in addition to export sales, on the basis of the replies to the sampling questionnaires.

(15) In accordance with Article 27(2) of the basic Regulation, all known exporting producers concerned, and the authorities of the country concerned were consulted on the selection of the sample. The Commission received comments in this regard from the complainant.

(16) The complainant claimed that: (i) the sample should not include any US-owned companies as they were not likely to be eligible for most of the subsidy schemes and they would have allegedly very limited access to the Chinese domestic market; (ii) the sample overrepresented privately owned Chinese companies and underrepresented publicly owned Chinese companies which are allegedly more integrated, more present on the domestic market, and more eligible for financing and grants.

(17) The Commission, after having carefully analysed the comments, considered that the sample adequately represented the exporting producers of MAEs operating in China and that it was consistent with EU and WTO laws. At the outset, the Commission recalled that Article 27 of the basic Regulation provides for a large degree of discretion in choosing the sample according to the relevant criteria listed therein. In particular, Article 27(2) clearly states that ‘the final selection of parties […] shall rest with the Commission’.

(18) With regard to the specific arguments raised by the complainant, the Commission noted that the selection of the sample was based on the largest representative volume of production, sales or exports to the Union during the investigation period that could reasonably be investigated within the time available. Therefore, the Commission decided, inter alia, to have one US-owned company in the sample, as being the biggest exporting producer and to include the biggest Chinese producer in terms of production and domestic sales in China, although this company was not among the biggest exporters to the Union.

(19) As mentioned in recital (16), the eligibility to subsidy schemes was one of the elements considered by the Commission to select the sample. However, the Commission did not make this criterion the decisive one to ensure that the selection of sample was not biased.

(20) For the same reason as above the Commission did not use as a criterion of sampling the corporate status of the company. All types of the companies: foreign owned, Chinese privately owned and Chinese publicly owned were represented. Furthermore, on the basis of the sampling replies, the Commission did not find grounds for the statement that publicly owned Chinese companies are in general more integrated, more present on domestic market, and more eligible for financing and grants than private ones.

(21) In view of all the above considerations, the Commission decided to confirm its provisional sample which accounted (in number of units) for 54 % of the production, 47 % of the domestic sales, and 59 % of the estimated total export volume to the Union from the PRC in the investigation period. The Commission considered the sample representative under Article 27 of the basic Regulation.

(22) The Commission sent questionnaires to the GOC, the four groups of sampled exporting producers, the three sampled Union producers, the complainant, the known importers and to users. The questionnaires for the companies were also made available online on the day of initiation.

(23) The Commission received questionnaire replies from the GOC, the four groups of sampled exporting producers, one group of exporting producers requesting individual examination, the three sampled Union producers and the complainant.

(25) Terex (Changzhou) Machinery Co., Ltd., an exporting producer in the PRC submitted a request for individual examination under Article 27(3) of the basic Regulation. Subsequently, it also submitted a questionnaire reply, together with its related companies in the PRC.

(26) Taking into account the number of related companies in the Terex group, which would also have to be verified, and the number of companies already covered by the sample, the Commission concluded that it would be unduly burdensome for the timely conclusion of the proceeding to accept the individual examination request. Thus, the request was rejected.

(27) The Terex group challenged the Commission decision in this regard during the hearing requested following the definitive disclosure. However, the Terex group did not present any element that would justify the examination of its individual examination request without challenging the timely conclusion of the investigation. Furthermore, no post hearing presentation or written submission was presented afterwards. The Commission conclusion as to the number of companies of the Terex group potentially involved in the individual examination procedure, rendering the analysis of the request unduly burdensome for a timely conclusion of the investigation, was thus upheld.

(28) The investigation of subsidisation and injury covered the period from 1 October 2022 to 30 September 2023 (‘the investigation period’ or ‘IP’). The examination of trends relevant for the assessment of injury covered the period from 1 January 2020 to the end of the investigation period (‘the period considered’).

(29) Pursuant to Article 12(1) of the basic Regulation, the deadline for imposition of the provisional measures was 26 December 2024. On 2 December 2024, in accordance with Article 29(a) of the basic Regulation, the Commission informed the interested parties of its intention not to impose provisional measures.

(30) The Commission continued to seek and verify all the information it deemed necessary for its final findings.

(31) When reaching its definitive findings, the Commission considered the comments submitted by interested parties.

(32) On 4 March 2025, the Commission informed all the interested parties of the essential facts and considerations on the basis of which it intended to impose a definitive countervailing duty on imports of mobile access equipment originating in the PRC (‘definitive disclosure’). All parties were granted a period within which they could make comments on the definitive disclosure.

(33) Following comments received from Zoomlion Group on the definitive disclosure, the Commission adjusted the calculation of the subsidy rate for this group. The updated calculations were disclosed to Zoomlion Group (‘additional disclosure’), which was granted time to comment.

(34) Following definitive disclosure, comments were received from the GOC, the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products (‘CCCME’), Zoomlion Group and CMAE. The Commission held hearings with the CCCME, CMAE and Terex (Changzou) Machinery Co., Ltd. No interested party requested hearing with the Hearing Officer.

(35) In its comments after definitive disclosure, the CCCME raised certain procedural issues concerning lack of disclosure by the Commission of the calculations of external benchmarks to the interested parties. The CCCME also argued that its preliminary comments submitted on 2 December 2024 were not addressed in the definitive disclosure.

(36) The Commission rejected these claims. External benchmarks and detailed calculations of the subsidy amounts were disclosed to the sampled Chinese exporting producers, which are also members of the CCCME. For the sake of clarity, on 17 March 2025 these benchmarks were also added to the open file.

(37) The comments submitted by the CCCME on 2 December were submitted after the deadline provided in the Notice of initiation. The CCCME was informed that it could still re-submit its comments after definitive disclosure, which it did. Such comments are addressed in this Regulation.

(38) Following the definitive disclosure, the CCCME made similar comments to those already made in relation to the final findings established by the Commission in the separate anti-dumping investigation, concerning the product scope, the injury assessment, the causal link and the Union interest.

(39) As indicated in Section 1.1. above, the analysis of the economic situation of the Union industry of the present Regulation is mutatis mutandis identical to the findings in the separate anti-dumping investigation, since the definition of the Union industry, the sampled Union producers, the period considered, and the investigation period are the same in both investigations. Also, the analysis of the product scope, the causal link and the Union interest has remained unchanged. Therefore, the Commission referred for these comments of the CCCME to Sections 2.4, 5.2.3 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/1915 of 11 July 2024 imposing a provisional anti-dumping duty on imports of mobile access equipment originating in the People’s Republic of China (7), and to Sections 2.4, 4.1, 4.5 and 5 of the definitive anti-dumping Regulation, where these comments were addressed in detail.

(40) The product under investigation is mobile access equipment (‘MAE’) designed for the lifting of persons, self-propelled, with a maximum working height of 6 metres or more, and pre-assembled or ready-to-assemble sections thereof, excluding individual components when presented separately, and excluding person lifting equipment mounted on vehicles of Chapter 86 and Chapter 87 of the Harmonised System (‘the product under investigation’), currently falling under CN codes ex 8427 10 10 , ex 8427 20 19 , ex 8428 90 90 , ex 8431 20 00 and ex 8431 39 00 (TARIC codes: 8427 10 10 10, 8427 20 19 10, 8428 90 90 20, 8431 20 00 60 and 8431 39 00 10).

(41) The product scope includes machines used for the lifting of people in a vast range of different applications and it includes articulated boom lifts, telescopic boom lifts, scissor lifts and vertical masts.

(42) Sections, pre-assembled or ready-to-assemble, consist of four categories in particular: (1) chassis; (2) turret or turntables; (3) platform or baskets; (4) lifting mechanism for MAE. The lifting mechanism include booms (telescopic and or articulated, with or without jibs) for telescopic boom lift, articulated boom lift or vertical mast and scissor arms for scissor lift. They do not include individual components when presented separately.

(43) The product concerned is mobile access equipment, originating in the People’s Republic of China (‘the product concerned’).

(45) Before analysing the alleged subsidisation in the form of subsidies or subsidy programmes, the Commission assessed government plans, projects, and other documents, which were relevant for the analysis of the investigated subsidy programmes.

(46) As a preliminary remark, the Commission pointed out that China’s overall economic setup is characterised by a particularly strong role of the State, with the State authorities being in turn controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (‘CCP’), the ruling political entity of the country. As a result, businesses in China operate in a specific environment which – unlike the Western economies where market forces represent the dominant organizing principle – features numerous mechanisms that provide the GOC with substantial degree of control over any aspect of the economic activity in the country. This tight control prevents economic operators from acting as rational market operators seeking to maximise profits, and in fact forces them to act as an arm of the government in implementing its policies and plans.

(47) The following features are most significant in transmitting the GOC policy decisions into the day-to day business conduct of economic operators: (i) doctrine of socialist market economy; (ii) leadership of the CCP; (iii) system of industrial planning; (iv) financial system.