(23) Huntsman raised that if the Union industry would have suffered from any injury, this would have been attributed to the effects of the economic crisis and not to imports from the USA. The mere exacerbation of the negative impact of the crisis through imports could not permit a finding of a likely recurrence of injury caused by the mentioned imports.

(24) In respect of the alleged illegality of the reopening (recitals 17-18), it is recalled that in case C-458/98 P (the ‘IPS judgment’), the Court of Justice recognised that in cases where a proceeding consists of several administrative steps, the annulment of one of those steps does not annul the complete proceeding. The anti-dumping proceeding is an example of such a multi-step proceeding. Consequently, the annulment of the amending Regulation in relation to one party does not imply the annulment of the entire procedure prior to the adoption of that Regulation(13). Moreover, according to Article 266 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the Union institutions are required to comply with the judgment. In the light of the above, the claim that there is no legal basis for the partial reopening of a review investigation was found to be unwarranted.

(25) The claim that the introduction of deadlines to conclude anti-dumping investigations prevents the Commission from extending the investigation beyond the 15-months statutory limit (recital 17 above) was also found to be unwarranted. It is considered that this deadline is not relevant for the implementation of a Court judgment. Indeed, such deadline only governs the completion of the initial review investigation from the date of initiation to the date of definitive action, and does not concern any subsequent action that might have to be taken for instance as a result of judicial review. The consequence of accepting such claim would make it impossible for the institutions to take account of the General Court’s findings (as Article 266 TFEU requires). Indeed, the General Court’s judgment will always be handed down at a time when the deadline for the investigation has expired. Furthermore, it is noted that any other interpretation would mean that, for example, a successful legal action brought by one party would be without any practical effect for that party if the expiry of the time limit to conclude the original investigation would not permit the implementation of a judgment of the General Court. This would be at odds with the principle that all parties should have the right to effective judicial review.