Anti-Dumping, Countervailing and Safeguard Duties Explained

Three instruments, three purposes

Trade remedies are extra duties on top of the normal tariff. They are allowed by the WTO agreements and can be very high.

Anti-dumping (AD) duties counter imports sold below normal value, usually the domestic price or cost of production in the exporting country. Countervailing (CVD, or anti-subsidy) duties offset subsidies granted by a foreign government. Safeguards respond to a sudden surge of imports regardless of fair or unfair pricing and usually apply to all origins, often through tariff quotas.

• AD and CVD are origin-specific and often company-specific.
• Safeguards are erga omnes, with exemptions for some developing countries.
• All three are linked to the product's code and origin, so a classification or origin error can trigger or avoid them by mistake.

How the measures are set

European Union

The European Commission investigates under the basic Anti-Dumping Regulation (EU) 2016/1036 and the Anti-Subsidy Regulation (EU) 2016/1037. Provisional duties can be imposed within seven to eight months of initiation and definitive duties within 14 months. Measures last five years and can be renewed after an expiry review. The duties are published as Commission Implementing Regulations and loaded into TARIC with additional codes for each exporter.

Example: bicycles from China have been subject to anti-dumping duty since 1993. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2146 of 22 October 2025 renewed the measure, including its extension to bicycles consigned from Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Cambodia, Pakistan and the Philippines.

United Kingdom

The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) investigates and recommends; the Secretary of State for Business and Trade decides. The legal basis is the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018. Measures appear in the UK Online Trade Tariff. On 1 July 2026 the UK replaced its steel safeguard with a new Steel Trade Measure: quotas cut by about 51% and a 50% duty above quota.

United States

Two agencies share the work. The Department of Commerce (International Trade Administration) determines dumping or subsidy margins; the US International Trade Commission (USITC) determines injury. Importers pay cash deposits at entry, and the final duty is fixed later in annual administrative reviews, so the final bill can be higher or lower than the deposit. Safeguards are imposed under Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974; the solar safeguard expired on 6 February 2026.

Türkiye

The Ministry of Trade (General Directorate of Imports) investigates under Law No. 3577 on the prevention of unfair competition in imports and its implementing decision and regulation. Measures are published in the Official Gazette as communiqués with the GTİP codes, origins and company rates. Safeguards are imposed under the import safeguard decision. Türkiye is one of the most active users of anti-dumping measures.

Company-specific rates and how to claim them

Exporters that cooperated in the investigation usually receive individual rates. Other exporters pay the residual rate (all other companies), which is normally the highest.

In the EU, the individual rate applies only if you declare the right TARIC additional code and present a valid commercial invoice that carries a declaration prescribed in the regulation. The declaration is signed by an official of the producing company, names the company and states that the goods were produced by it. If the invoice is missing or the declaration is not compliant, customs applies the residual rate.

In the US, the rate depends on the producer and exporter combination in the case number on the entry. In the UK and Türkiye, the declaration must also identify the producer named in the measure.

• Ask the supplier for the producer's exact legal name and the applicable additional code before shipping.
• Check that the producer, not a trader, is the company named in the regulation.
• Copy the declaration text exactly as set out in the regulation annex; partial or modified wording is rejected.
• Make sure the invoice is the one issued by the producer or covered by the undertaking, as the measure requires.

Circumvention and consigned-from extensions

When a measure is avoided by shipping through or assembling in a third country, the authority can extend it (Article 13 of the EU basic regulation). The extension applies to goods consigned from that country, whether declared as originating there or not. Genuine producers in the third country can request an exemption and receive a TARIC additional code, and they must present an invoice declaration too.

The US runs anti-circumvention inquiries at Commerce and enforces evasion through the Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) investigations at CBP. The UK and Türkiye have similar powers.

Practical consequence: Malaysian or Cambodian bicycles may pay Chinese anti-dumping duty in the EU unless the producer is exempted. Always check the dispatch country as well as the origin.

Worked example: bicycles from China into the Netherlands

An importer brings 100 non-motorised bicycles of CN 8712 00 30 made by a Chinese producer that is not named in the regulation. Customs value CIF Rotterdam: €10,000.

Conventional duty: 14% of €10,000 = €1,400.

Anti-dumping duty: the residual rate of 48.5% (the rate maintained since 2013; confirm the current figure in TARIC under the measure in Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2146) on €10,000 = €4,850.

VAT base: 10,000 + 1,400 + 4,850 = €16,250. Dutch VAT at 21% = €3,412.50.

Duties that are a real cost: €6,250, or 62.5% of the customs value. This is why checking measures before ordering matters more than any freight saving.

How to check measures on Tarifbase

On each Tarifbase code page, the measures section lists anti-dumping, countervailing and safeguard duties recorded for that code in the EU, UK, US and Turkish data we load, with the origin and, where available, company codes and links to the legal act.

Treat this as a starting point. Before declaring, open the official source (TARIC, the UK Online Trade Tariff, the Commerce AD/CVD case and CBP messages, or the Turkish Official Gazette communiqué), because measures change by regulation and can be retroactive.

Checklist

• Code and origin confirmed, and dispatch country checked for extensions.
• Producer name and additional code obtained from the supplier.
• Compliant invoice declaration on file before the goods arrive.
• Review and expiry dates monitored; new investigations followed in the Official Journal or Federal Register.
• In the US, budget for possible higher final duties after administrative review.