The European Union's antidumping tariff will finally be coming to an end next year. DigiTimes has reported that this will benefit many of Taiwan's manufacturers as they will have an easier time marketing their CD-R discs in Europe.
The European Union (EU) in March of 2002 decided to impose a five-year 37% antidumping duty on blank CD-R discs exported by leading Taiwanese makers, including CMC Magnetics, Ritek and Prodisc Technology, and the expiration of the punitive tax in early 2007 is expected to help Taiwanese makers market CD-R discs in Europe, according to Taiwan industry sources.
However, the expected benefit for CMC and Ritek should be less significant than for second-tier or smaller makers in Taiwan, since the two makers have been shifting part of their CD-R manufacturing to production of blank discs for DVD+R/-R and other DVD formats, the sources pointed out.
The article also points out that manufacturers will need to sign up for Philips' Veeza licensing system. If they don't, their products will be banned from the European market. If you'd like to read more, the entire article can be found here.
