Milk dumping probe dropped

Latvia's Domestic Market Protection Bureau has failed to gather enough evidence to prove that Lithuanian dairy imports cause significant losses to local producers and has therefore dropped the probe.

The bureau's decision stated that Lithuanian dairy producers did in fact sell milk in Latvia at dumping prices, but a probe at Latvia's Rigas Piena Kombinats and Valmieras Piens dairies, the companies requesting the original investigation, discovered that several Latvian producers also sell their products at below-production prices and that the market share of these companies in Latvia is much higher than that of Lithuanian ones.

The probe discovered that Latvia's Tukuma Piens sells milk at even cheaper prices than both the two abovementioned Latvian dairies and Lithuanian dairies, and the market share of Tukuma Piens is much larger than that of Lithuanian imports.

"Therefore, irrelevant of whether Lithuanian dairy imports are applied with anti-dumping fees or not, the situation of both local companies involved in the probe will not change," stated the Domestic Market Protection Bureau.

The bureau previously suggested that a 0.03 lat (0.047 euro) anti-dumping fee be slapped on Lithuanian dairy imports per kilogram of milk produced by Lithuania's Panevezio Pienas and a 0.06 lat fee for imports from Zemaitijos Pienas, Pieno Zvaigzdes and other Lithuanian imports.

This resulted in diplomatic notes and negotiations between Lithuanian and Latvian officials. Lithuania had threatened to slap anti-dumping fees on Latvian meat imports if the neighboring government went through with the planned anti-dumping fee.