The duties as high as 9.5 percent punish Turkish exporters of live, fresh, chilled, frozen or smoked rainbow trout for allegedly receiving trade-distorting government aid.

 

EU producers such as Danforel A/S of Denmark, Hofer Forellen GmbH of Germany and Aqualande SAS of France suffered “material injury” as a result of the subsidized imports from Turkey, the European Commission, the 28-nation bloc’s trade authority in Brussels, said Friday in the Official Journal. The five-year duties follow provisional anti-subsidy levies introduced in November and will take effect on Feb. 28.

 

Turkish rainbow-trout exporters almost doubled their share of the EU market to 17 percent in 2013 from 9 percent in 2010, according to the commission.

 

The five-year levies range from 6.9 percent to 9.5 percent, depending on the Turkish exporter. They compare with provisional rates between 7 percent and 9.7 percent. The EU will refund importers the difference with the lower five-year rates.

 

EU producers of rainbow trout totaled more than 700 in 2013, the commission said when announcing the provisional levies on Nov. 6. It also listed Zaklad Hodowli Pstraga w Zaporze of Poland and Piszolla SL of Spain as EU producers.

 

In a second decision published today in the Official Journal, the EU dropped a threat to impose a separate set of five-year duties on rainbow trout from Turkey to counter alleged below-cost -- or “dumped” -- imports.

 

The anti-subsidy and anti-dumping decisions mark the outcome of inquiries that the commission opened in February 2014 on the basis of complaints by the Danish Aquaculture Association on behalf of European producers that account for more than a quarter of the EU’s output of rainbow trout.