Anti-dumping duties: the extra duty on dumped imports

An anti-dumping duty is an additional customs duty imposed to counter dumping - where goods are exported to the EU at a price below their normal value (broadly, the price or cost in the exporter's home market) and that causes, or threatens, material injury to EU industry. It is not a tax on the product as such, like the ordinary tariff. It is a corrective measure aimed at a specific product from a specific country, and often a specific exporter.

How it is set

Anti-dumping duties are the result of an investigation, not a policy choice made overnight:

• the Commission opens an investigation, usually on a complaint from EU industry;
• it establishes the dumping margin (how far the export price sits below normal value) and the injury margin (how much is needed to remove the injury to EU producers);
• under the 'lesser-duty rule', the duty is set at the lower of the two; and
• a provisional duty usually comes first, followed by a definitive duty, normally for five years.

The rate is frequently company-specific: a cooperating exporter with its own investigated rate pays less than the 'all other companies' rate, which captures everyone else.

How it applies

An anti-dumping duty sits on top of the ordinary customs duty for the code, and it turns on the origin. To claim a lower company-specific rate, the importer must usually present a valid commercial invoice from the named producer - without it, the higher 'all other companies' rate applies. TARIC shows the anti-dumping measure against the 10-digit code, alongside the normal duty and any other measures.

Circumvention

Because the rates can be high, there is an incentive to dodge them - by routing goods through a third country, or by slightly modifying the product so it falls under a code the measure does not name. The EU responds with anti-circumvention investigations, and can register the suspect imports so that, if circumvention is confirmed, the duty is charged retroactively. A duty-free code today is not a guarantee it will stay that way.

Use case

Take hardwood plywood from China - CN 4412 33 90 10 - imported into Ireland. Ask Smart Taric AI what applies, and against the code it lays out the full picture:

• the third-country duty of 7%, the standard rate for most origins;
• a definitive anti-dumping duty of 86.8% for Chinese origin - the 'all other companies' rate under Regulation (EU) 2025/2333;
• a lower company-specific rate of 43.3% for Pizhou Jiangshan Wood, available only if a valid commercial invoice is presented (document code D-008); and
• the non-tariff and national layers too - a CITES import control, and Irish VAT at 23%.

Two things stand out. First, the scale: the anti-dumping duty is more than twelve times the tariff, so the classification and the origin evidence carry real money. Second, the moving target: the EU has opened an anti-circumvention investigation (Regulation (EU) 2026/1840) into 'slightly modified' plywood - with thin coniferous or bamboo outer plies added over a hardwood core - declared under duty-free codes to potentialy escape the measure, and has registered those imports for possible retroactive duty.

Smart Taric AI does not decide the classification for you; it reads TARIC and the measure regulations and shows what applies, so you can see both the headline duty and the risk around the edges. Try Smart Taric.