TRA launches review of ceramic tiles from China

The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) has today (Thursday 22 September) launched a transition review into anti-dumping measures on ceramic tiles from China.

These measures are among those inherited from the EU system and have been in place for 11 years. The TRA is reviewing them to establish whether they are still suitable for the UK’s needs.

The products in scope of this anti-dumping transition review include glazed and unglazed ceramic flags and paving, hearth or wall tiles, as well as glazed and unglazed ceramic mosaic cubes – all commodity codes in scope are listed in the case’s public file.

The UK imported over £382 million worth of these tiles in 2021, with 1.5% of these imports coming from China. Chinese imports of tiles to the UK currently face duty rates ranging from 14% to 70%.

The period of investigation for this transition review will be 1 July 2021 until 30 June 2022 and the injury period will be 1 July 2018 until 30 June 2022.

Businesses that may be affected by this review (such as importers or exporters of the products or UK producers of similar products) can contribute to the review process by registering their interest in the case on the TRA’s online case platform by 7 October 2022. All new developments in the case will be posted on the TRA’s public file.

View further information on the TRA’s current investigations, including transition reviews like this one.

Notes to editors:

• The Trade Remedies Authority is the UK body that investigates whether new trade remedy measures are needed to counter unfair import practices and unforeseen surges of imports.
• The EU’s equivalent measures are due to expire later this year and an expiry review of these is expected.
• Dumping occurs when goods are imported into a country and sold at a price that is below their normal value in their country of export.
• Transition reviews into EU measures determine if a transitioned measure should be varied or extended according to whether:
  • the continuing application of an anti-dumping or countervailing duty is necessary or sufficient to offset the dumping of imports of subsidised goods into the UK;
  • and whether there would be injury to the UK producers of those goods if an anti-dumping duty or countervailing duty were no longer to apply to those goods.
• Trade remedy investigations were carried out by the EU Commission on the UK’s behalf until the UK left the EU. 44 EU trade remedy measures of interest to UK producers were carried across into UK law when the UK left the EU and the TRA is currently reviewing each one to establish whether it is suitable for UK needs.
• Period of Investigation – when we are investigating dumping and subsidy cases, we will use a period of investigation of around a year. We will aim for the end point to be as close as possible to the date of initiation. However, we will decide this on a case-by-case basis.
• Period of injury – the injury period will usually cover the period of investigation and normally the 36 months immediately before this (i.e., 48 months in total). TRA investigators look at evidence of injury over a longer period than the general period of investigation so that they can assess trends and other factors in more detail than if they looked at a single year.