Article 8 Determination of injury
1. For the purposes of this Regulation, the term 'injury' shall, unless otherwise specified, be taken to mean material injury to the Community industry, threat of material injury to the Community industry or material retardation of the establishment of such an industry and shall be interpreted in accordance with the provisions of this Article.
2. A determination of injury shall be based on positive evidence and shall involve an objective examination of both:
(a) the volume of the subsidized imports and the effect of the subsidized imports on prices in the Community market for like products; and
(b) the consequent impact of those imports on the Community industry.
3. With regard to the volume of the subsidized imports, consideration shall be given to whether there has been a significant increase in subsidized imports, either in absolute terms or relative to production or consumption in the Community. With regard to the effect of the subsidized imports on prices, consideration shall be given to whether there has been significant price undercutting by the subsidized imports as compared with the price of a like product of the Community industry, or whether the effect of such imports is otherwise to depress prices to a significant degree or prevent price increases which would otherwise have occurred, to a significant degree. No one or more of these factors can necessarily give decisive guidance.
4. Where imports of a product from more than one country are simultaneously subject to countervailing duty investigations, the effects of such imports shall be cumulatively assessed only if it is determined that:
(a) the amount of countervailable subsidies established in relation to the imports from each country is more than de minimis as defined in Article 14 (5) and that the volume of imports from each country is not negligible; and
(b) a cumulative assessment of the effects of the imports is appropriate in light of the conditions of competition between imported products and the conditions of competition between the imported products and the like Community product.
5. The examination of the impact of the subsidized imports on the Community industry concerned shall include an evaluation of all relevant economic factors and indices having a bearing on the state of the industry, including: the fact that an industry is still in the process of recovering from the effects of past subsidization or dumping, the magnitude of the amount of countervailable subsidies, actual and potential decline in sales, profits, output, market share, productivity, return on investments, utilization of capacity; factors affecting Community prices; actual and potential negative effects on cash flow, inventories, employment, wages, growth, ability to raise capital or investments and, in the case of agriculture, whether there has been an increased burden on government support programmes. This list is not exhaustive, nor can any one or more of these factors necessarily give decisive guidance.
