Anti-dumping duty: how to check if your goods from China are affected

What trade remedies are

Trade remedies are extra import duties the UK can place on specific goods, often from named countries or named exporters, to protect a UK industry. Because they are aimed at particular products, two items in the same container can be treated very differently. There are three kinds.

• Anti-dumping duty: charged where goods are sold into the UK below their normal value in the exporting country.
• Countervailing duty: charged where the goods benefited from certain subsidies in the country they came from. For customs purposes it is treated the same way as anti-dumping duty, and one product can face both.
• Safeguard duty: a temporary measure against a sudden, damaging rise in imports. It applies to imports from all countries, with exemptions for some developing countries, and only becomes payable once a set volume has come in.

Anti-dumping and countervailing duties are added on top of any normal customs duty. If safeguard duty also applies to the same goods, only the higher of the safeguard and anti-dumping amounts is charged.

Three bodies are involved. The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) investigates and makes recommendations. The Secretary of State for Business and Trade makes the decisions, which are published as trade remedies notices. HMRC collects the duty when goods are imported.

The duties follow non-preferential origin. In short, that is the country where the goods were wholly produced or, where more than one country was involved, where they gained their essential character. Sending goods through another country for processing that does not change their origin is called circumvention, and a duty can be extended to cover goods coming from that country.

How to check whether your products are covered

Measures are attached to commodity codes, so start with the right code. If you are unsure about your codes, sort that out first. Our guide to getting set up to import explains how codes work.

1. Look up each 10-digit code on the UK Trade Tariff and read the import measures for China. Where an anti-dumping measure needs an additional code, it is shown against the commodity code.
2. Read the notice for any measure you find. The trade remedies notices collection (opens in a new tab) lists current measures by product, and each notice sets out the goods description, codes, rates and dates.
3. Check the TRA's public file of investigations (opens in a new tab) for active cases on your product. It shows investigations and reviews that may not have reached the tariff yet.
4. Repeat the checks when you add a product, change supplier or place a large order.

Read the goods description as carefully as the codes. A single measure can reach across several chapters of the tariff. The current ironing boards measure, for example, lists codes in the plastics, wood, steel and electrical chapters. Descriptions can also leave things out. The provisional measure on glass containers from China excludes containers of 2.5 litres or more.

How rates are set for each exporter

Anti-dumping rates are usually set exporter by exporter. The definitive measure on ironing boards from China, published on 12 February 2026, sets rates between 18.1% and 39.6% for six named Chinese exporters and 42.3% for all other exporters. The rate is a percentage of the net free-at-frontier price of the goods, before other import duties.

The rate for all other exporters is known as the residual rate. Each named exporter has its own code in the notice, and the import declaration carries the additional code in data element 6/16, next to the 10-digit commodity code. Your customs agent fills this in, but they can only claim a named rate if you give them the right paperwork.

To get a named exporter's rate, a valid commercial invoice with a signed and dated declaration must be presented to HMRC at import. An identifiable official of the company that issued the invoice must sign it, giving their name and role. If the invoice or declaration is missing, the residual rate applies. The glass containers notice also requires the declaration to state the volume, the goods, the producer's name and address, the additional code and the country.

Before you order goods that carry a measure, ask your supplier:

• Which company produced the goods, with its full legal name and address.
• Whether that company is named in the notice, and which rate and code apply to it.
• Whether they will put the required declaration on the commercial invoice, worded as the notice asks.
• If you buy through a trading company, how the producer will appear on the paperwork. Rates are tied to the companies named in the notice, so ask your customs agent what they need to see.

Build any duty into your landed cost before you agree a price. Our guide to the real cost of importing a container shows where it fits.

Provisional duty during an investigation

A new investigation can lead to provisional duty before any final decision. In dumping cases, provisional measures can apply for up to six months, and this can be extended to a maximum of nine. While they apply, importers must give security for the duty, such as a cash deposit, a bond or a bank guarantee.

Glass containers from China show how this works. A provisional measure took effect on 9 September 2026, with rates from 24.65% to 52.97% depending on the producer. Importers must give a guarantee for the estimated duty, which is only payable if definitive duties follow. If the definitive rate turns out lower, only the definitive amount is collected. If it is higher, only the amount already secured under the provisional duty is collected.

Security is held for four months after a duty becomes definitive. If the definitive rate is lower than the provisional rate and you paid the provisional amount, you can claim the difference back on form C285.

What changes when a review is opened

Measures are not fixed. The TRA can review them, and each review starts with a notice of initiation published through the Trade Remedies Service. The main types are:

• Interim review: checks whether a measure is still needed or set at the right level. It can leave the measure unchanged, change its level, form or length, or remove it.
• Expiry review: decides whether a measure ends or is extended for up to five years, at the same or a different level. The existing measure keeps applying until the review ends and a decision is made.
• New exporter review: considers whether a new exporter should get its own rate. While it runs, collection of duty on that exporter's goods is suspended, and the residual rate can be reinstated depending on the outcome.
• Circumvention review: looks at whether trade is being arranged to avoid a measure. The duty can be extended to goods from a third country or to certain exporters.
• Scope review: decides whether the description of the goods should be widened or narrowed.
• Absorption review: checks whether export prices have fallen so that the duty is not having its intended effect.

Reviews take time. The review behind the current ironing boards measure began on 30 September 2024, and the decision to keep the existing rates until 3 October 2029 was published on 12 February 2026. At the time of writing, the public file shows an interim review of ceramic tableware and kitchenware from China, opened on 20 July 2026. Until a decision notice is published, work to the current notice.

If you think you paid the wrong amount

If you have evidence that an exporter's goods were not dumped, or that the dumping margin was lower than the measure was based on, you can ask the TRA to open a repayment investigation. HMRC repays duty where the investigation finds the amount paid was wrong.

Customs procedures can change when duty is due. Under inward processing, anti-dumping and countervailing duty can be suspended until the goods are released into free circulation. Goods in a customs warehouse pay the rate in force when they leave the warehouse for free circulation.

Keep each invoice declaration with the shipment it relates to. Portside files documents against each shipment, which makes it easier to show your agent, or HMRC, which declaration covered which container.

Quick answers