EU may lift duty on Chinese lighters

Chinese lighter manufacturers said Tuesday that they would increase exports to Europe, following media reports that the European Commission will cancel next month an anti-dumping duty that has been imposed on Chinese-made lighters for over two decades.

Chinese lighters will finally be allowed to enter the European market free of any extra duties after over 20 years of being subject to EU anti-dumping measures, European affairs daily Europolitics reported Tuesday, citing EU sources.

A dossier from BIC, a French disposable pocket lighter manufacturer, calling for an extension to the anti-dumping measures for another five years did not provide sufficient evidence of Chinese dumping practices, the paper said.

BIC also said Tuesday it had received confirmation from the Directorate General for Trade of the European Commission that it had issued a negative recommendation concerning the opening of renewal procedures for the anti-dumping duty on Chinese flint lighters.

The French government said in a statement on November 16 this year that it had written to EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht asking him to examine BIC's request with the utmost attention, Reuters reported.

The European Commission is expected to announce a formal decision on whether to extend the anti-dumping duty on December 12. The duty on Chinese-made gas-fuelled, non-refillable flint lighters was first imposed in 1991.

Chinese lighter manufacturers, mainly based in East China's Zhejiang and Central China's Hunan provinces, said canceling the anti-dumping duty would benefit the whole industry.

"We will increase exports to Europe if the anti-dumping duty is lifted, because of the European market's higher profit margins and large client base," Liu Jun­xiang, manager of Xingda Lighter Manufacturing Co in Hunan's Shaodong county, told the Global Times Tuesday. Currently the company mainly exports to Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

The county's exports of lighters amounted to 1.05 billion units in the first seven months of 2012, higher than other major production areas in the country, according to Hunan Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau.

"Lighter manufacturers in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province will be less affected, because they mainly produce mid- and high-end refillable lighters," Huang Fajing, head of Wenzhou Lighter Producers' Association, told the Global Times.

But the EU's decision could benefit the whole industry, Huang said, because if it decides not to extend the anti-dumping duty on cheaper flint lighters, it is less likely that it will "impose such duties on refillable lighters in the future."

In 2002, the EU launched a dumping investigation against refillable lighters from China. Led by Huang's association, Chinese lighter makers won the anti-dumping suit in 2003, and the EU soon terminated the anti-dumping case against Chinese-made refillable lighters.

Huang admitted that his association's member companies exported a decreasing number of lighters to Europe in recent years, because of sluggish demand and increasing technology barriers.