21. 12. 95 Official Journal of the European Communities No L 308/61 COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 2961/95 of 18 December 1995 imposing a definitive anti-dumping duty on imports of peroxodisulphates (persulphates), originating in the People’s Republic of China, and collecting definitively the provisional duty imposed THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 3283/94 of 22 December 1994 on protection against dumped imports from countries not members of the European Commu- nity ('), and in particular Article 23 thereof, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 2423/88 of 11 July 1988 on protection against dumped or subsidized imports from countries not members of the European Economic Community (%), and in particular Article 12 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission after consulting the Advisory Committee, Whereas : A. Provisional measures (),  The Commission, by  Regulation (EC) No 1748/95 (), hereinafter referred to as the ‘provi- sional duty Regulation’, imposed a provisional anti-dumping duty on imports into the Commu- nity of peroxodisulphates (persulphates) originating in the People’s Republic of China and falling within CN code ex 2833 40 00. By Regulation (EC) No 2677/95 (*), the Council extended the validity of this duty for a period of two months expiring on 20 January 1996. B. Subsequent procedure (2  Subsequent to the imposition of the provisional anti-dumping duty, the interested parties who so requested were granted an opportunity to be heard by the Commission. They also made written submissions making known their views on the findings. (33 Upon request, parties were informed of the essen- tial facts and considerations on the basis of which it was intended to recommend the imposition of a definitive duty and the definitive collection of amounts by way of a provisional duty. They were also granted a period within which to make repre- sentations subsequent to the disclosure. (1) OJ No L 349, 31. 12. 1994, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 1251085 (OJ No L 122, 2. 6. 1995, p. 1 (3 OJ No L 209, 2. 8. 1988, p. 1. Regulation as last amended by Regulation (EC) No 522/94 (O] No L 66, 10. 3. 1994, p. 1). () OJ No L 169, 19. 7. 1995, p. 15. () OJ No L 275, 18. 11. 1995, p. 21. “ ® ©® 9 The oral and written comments submitted by the parties were considered and, where appropriate, the Commission’s findings were modified to take account of them. C. Product under consideration For the purpose of its preliminary findings, the Commission determined, pursuant to recital 9 of the provisional duty Regulation, that the three types of persulphates (ammonium, sodium and potassium) should be treated as one product. According to the preliminary determination, the three different types of persulphates have the same end-uses as an initiator and oxidizing agent in the textile and chemical industries and can be substi- tuted one for another. The two cooperating exporters claimed that the three different types of persulphates are not suffici- ently interchangeable, in particular because the end-users in practice have only a limited possibility to switch from one type of persulphates to another. According to the exporters, the pricing of inter- mediate products like persulphates is essential for the finished product to be competitive in the market and the purchase of one of the types of persulphates is determined by end-users’ needs to produce a specific competitive end-product. In addition, all industrial end-users would, if the three types of persulphates were interchangeable, due to the price difference among them, purchase exclusi- vely the cheapest persulphate in order to minimize costs of their finished products. After consideration of the exporters’ arguments and having obtained comments from the Community industry, the Council confirms the preliminary findings that the three types of persulphates should be regarded as one product for the following reasons : — the essential characteristics of the three types of persulphates are the same, because, regardless of the type of persulphate, the persulphate anion is the active substance which generally gives end-users the ability to alternate among the different types, ' — the basic end-use as initiator and oxidizing agent is the same for all the three different types of persulphates,