Anti-Dumping Duty

What is anti-dumping duty?

First of all a bit of background. If you have ever imported at all from outside of Europe or countries with free trade agreements you will be familiar with the concept of paying duty to Customs and that it is a cost of doing business. You will probably know that most industrial items have a duty rate of between zero to a few percent for most items with other items a bit more. For example, most clothing have the high rates of duty of typically 12 percent.

Anti-dumping is an additional charge on top of ‘normal’ duty and it’s purpose is to protect the UK and EU being flooded with below cost imports. The basis for the calculation is that the price the goods are sold for on their home market. If they are then imported into the UK and EU at a rate below this home market price they are liable to be considered to be being dumped for duty purposes.

The anti-dumping duty levied becoming the amount of surcharge needed to bring the value of goods on arrival in the UK / EU up to the home market price.

For example if a cycle manufacturer (cycles often attract anti-dumping duty) in a Far East country sells a cycle on their domestic market for £100.00, but when they sell the same cycle to a UK importer for £50.00 and customs have investigated and concluded that the cycles are being sold to the UK below cost they would apply an anti-dumping duty rate of 100%. This would bring the price up to the domestic market level.

Generally speaking anti-dumping duty rates do tend to be quite high and the reason for this is that the difference of price between the price in their domestic market and what they are sold to the UK, or the EU for that matter has to be quite significant before a price investigation is triggered.

Frequently asked questions:

What sort of products have anti-dumping duty?

There seem to be some products that are often claimed to be imported below market prices and so often attract anti-dumping duty. Steel is the most famous, along with cycles, ceramics, kitchenware, along with more obscure items such as pump trucks & ironing boards. This list is an illustration and is absolutely not exhaustive!

Where do I find out if what I am importing is subject to anti-dumping duty?

The government website is an excellent resource. Also try using the <ahref=”https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/sections>Customs on-line tariff. Key in your goods and get a commodity code. Then go to the import tab and scroll down. If there is anti-dumping payable it will be noted here.

Is Anti-dumping duty payable on all imports for a particular product?

No it is not. It is normal (but not always the case) for the anti-dumping duty to be decided by supplier. So, a supplier in China could have 33% duty on their products for example, another could have 20% duty and a third none at all. Don’t be tempted to have your supplier change their name to avoid the payment of anti-dumping duty. This would be fraud and you really don’t want HM Revenue and Customs visiting you un-announced. The consequences would be serious and if done on a big enough scale you could end up in prison!

Do I pay normal duty as well as anti-dumping duty?

Yes I’m afraid you pay both.

Do I pay import VAT on anti-dumping duty

Yes you do. You pay VAT (if applicable) on the ‘landed value’ so that means all costs including all duty, freight, insurance and the cost of the goods of course.