You negotiated a sharp purchase price, the container sails, and at the import declaration there is suddenly an extra 30, 40 or even 60 percent duty on your product. That is not a customs error — it is an anti-dumping duty, and you could have seen it coming before signing the order. Here is how it works and how to check it yourself.
What anti-dumping is
The EU can impose an extra duty on products that exporters dump into the EU below their normal home-market price (or below cost), injuring European producers. The legal basis is Regulation (EU) 2016/1036. Alongside it sits the countervailing duty (Regulation (EU) 2016/1037) for products made with state subsidies — same effect, different grounds, and the two can stack.
The duty comes on top of the regular import duty. With a normal tariff of, say, 6% and an anti-dumping duty of 48%, you pay 54% over the customs value. Rates often differ per manufacturer: cooperating producers get their own (lower) rate, everyone else falls under the residual rate — the highest one.
Known examples from China
A few product groups that have carried measures for years, or have done in the past:
- Ceramic tiles (HS 6907)
- Bicycles and e-bikes (HS 8712)
- Fasteners — screws, bolts, nuts of iron or steel (HS 7318)
- Solar panels and cells (HS 8541) — measures here have changed over the years and partly expired; which is exactly why you check the current state instead of trusting what applied last year
This list is indicative and it moves. Measures get imposed, extended, reviewed and withdrawn. The only binding source is the current Taric state.
How to check it yourself
The duty hangs on the 10-digit Taric code, not the 6-digit HS code. Two products in the same HS heading can be treated completely differently.
- Look up your product's 10-digit code in the usage tariff on tarief.douane.nl — the binding source for the Dutch declaration.
- Enter the country of origin and review the measures: any anti-dumping and countervailing duties are listed there, including manufacturer-specific rates and additional codes.
- The underlying regulations are on EUR-Lex; ongoing investigations and notices are published by the European Commission via DG Trade (the TRON portal).
Do this check before you order, not when the container is already at sea. And classify honestly: nudging a product into a neighbouring code to dodge the duty is fraud, and customs knows that game.
Origin decides — not the country of shipment
Anti-dumping duties follow the non-preferential origin of the goods. A Chinese tile shipped via a middleman in Dubai is still a Chinese tile. Transhipping, repacking or wrapping a new invoice around it changes nothing.
The EU also runs anti-circumvention measures: when a duty is structurally evaded through minimal assembly in a third country, the Commission can extend the measure to consignments from that country — with bicycles this has happened in the past for shipments from several Asian countries. A supplier who unprompted puts a different country of origin on the papers than where the product really comes from is a red flag: in a post-clearance recovery you, the importer, are the one who pays, up to three years back.
What it means for your purchasing
Price the duty into your cost from day one. And mind the cash flow: during ongoing investigations a provisional duty may apply for which you must lodge security at import, and your customs broker will include the expected duty in the guarantee on the declaration. A container of tiles carrying 30%+ duty is a serious amount that has to be available at the moment of clearance.
Nexport Logistics checks the Taric measures on your commodity codes at the Customs declaration and warns before shipment when a product group is affected — in the Nexportal platform you see this as a compliance alert on your file. Unsure about a commodity code or origin? Mail info@nexportlogistics.nl.
Official sources: tarief.douane.nl (binding Taric check) · Regulation (EU) 2016/1036 · European Commission — trade defence. Related: Customs · CBAM · Sea freight