Applying for a trade remedies investigation

Question 1

Legal framework

Accepted Answer

Primary legislation in the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018 (the Taxation Act)

Paragraph 9 of Schedule 4 to the Taxation Act covers the requirements an application must meet for us to initiate a dumping or subsidy investigation.

Paragraph 7 of Schedule 5 to the Taxation Act covers the requirements an application must meet for us to initiate a safeguard investigation.

Secondary legislation in The Trade Remedies (Dumping and Subsidisation) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (the D&S Regulations)

Chapter 2 of Part 6 of the D&S Regulations contains regulations covering what is needed to initiate a dumping or subsidy investigation, including how to assess applications and the market share requirement.

Part 7 of the D&S Regulations contains regulations to review existing anti-dumping and countervailing measures including requirements an application must meet for us to initiate a review.

Secondary legislation in The Trade Remedies (Increase in Imports Causing Serious Injury to UK Producers) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (the Safeguarding Regulations)

Chapter 2 of Part 5 of the Safeguarding Regulations contains regulations covering what is needed to initiate a safeguard investigation, including how to assess applications and the market share requirement.

Part 6 of the Safeguarding Regulations contains regulations to review existing safeguard measures including requirements an application must meet for us to initiate a review.

World Trade Organization (WTO) – relevant provisions

Applications for trade remedies investigations are covered in the agreement for each type of investigation:

Anti-Dumping Agreement, Article 5, for dumping investigations

Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, Article 11, for subsidy investigations

Agreement on Safeguards, Article 2, for safeguard investigations

Question 2

Application process

Accepted Answer

Making an application

If you are a UK producer and you believe that dumped or subsidised imports or a sudden increase of imports are causing injury to your industry, you can apply to us for a trade remedies investigation. We will assess your application and decide whether to initiate an investigation into the imports in question.

You may also apply for a review of an existing anti-dumping, countervailing or safeguard measure. For further information on who may request a review, consult our guidance on requirements for a review to be initiated (further information below).

To apply for a trade remedies investigation or review, you will need to register on our Trade Remedies Service Trade Remedies Service and complete the appropriate application form. If you are not sure which type of investigation or review is appropriate for you, you can consult our guidance on Introduction to trade remedies TROG, our guidance on Reviews of anti-dumping and countervailing measures TROG and Reviews of safeguard measures TROG, or contact our Pre-Application Office (PAO) on contact@traderemedies.gov.uk.

When applying, make sure you:

answer all questions which relate to the measure you are applying for and complete all attachments, and
supply a non-confidential version of your application form. For further information on how to provide non-confidential versions, consult our TRA’s investigation process guidance.

When providing supporting data, the sources you select may affect how reliable we consider your data to be. We may consider your information to be more dependable if:

it is from reputable sources (such as commissioned expert submissions)
your claims are supported by reputable secondary source data (such as well-regarded trade journals or published industry information)

Using our Pre-Application Office

Our PAO can advise you on how to make an application for a trade remedies investigation or review, as well as providing responses to ad hoc queries.

We encourage you to contact the PAO before you formally submit an application. It is not necessary to do so but may be helpful if you do. You will be assigned a contact who can discuss your application with you and advise you on what information you will need to supply.

For more information on this, please see our Pre-application office guidance or contact the PAO on contact@traderemedies.gov.uk.

Duration of our application assessment process

We will normally make a decision whether to accept an application within 40 days of receiving an application for a dumping and subsidy investigation and within 30 days of receiving an application for a safeguard investigation.

Before the end of the second working day after receiving your application, we will notify the Secretary of State of your application.

We won’t publicly share the fact that we have received an application until and unless we initiate an investigation or review. However, while we are assessing an application, we may:

ask for extra information from any party relevant to the application
arrange visits to any relevant premises in the UK

If we accept an application, we will notify the Secretary of State of our decision. We will then inform you that the application has been accepted, notify the governments of the relevant foreign countries or territories subject to the new investigation or review and, in subsidy cases only, invite them to participate in consultations.

Further information about notifications can be found in the TRA’s investigation process guidance.

Withdrawing an application

You can withdraw an application by letting us know. If you do this before we publish the notice of initiation, the application will not be published, and we will terminate its assessment.

We will notify the Secretary of State that your application has been withdrawn.

Question 3

Assessment of your application

Accepted Answer

When we assess an application, we examine the accuracy and adequacy of the information supplied to determine whether it is sufficient to initiate a case.

While we do not verify evidence during the application assessment stage, we may not accept information we find to be inconsistent or inadequate. For example, we may not accept information which is:

not internally consistent
not accurate
based on an unsubstantiated assertion

At the application assessment stage, we are not required to base our decision whether to initiate an investigation on evidence of the quality and kind necessary to support a preliminary or final determination. Similarly, there is no obligation imposed on us to resolve all underlying issues before initiating a case.

Asking for clarification

We may contact you to ask you to clarify information supplied in your application. If we do this, we may take longer to make a decision regarding your application.

Decision on whether to accept your application

If your application meets all requirements for us to initiate an investigation or review, we will advise you of this. We will also let you know about any further information we need from you. If the application does not meet certain requirements for us to an initiate an investigation, we will reject it unless we have expressly waived those requirements.

If we reject your application, we will write to you, setting out the reasons for our decision. We will also notify the Secretary of State of our decision.

Question 4

Requirements for a new investigation to be initiated

Accepted Answer

There are certain requirements which an application must meet for us to initiate any type of investigation. It is helpful to know about these when you are considering whether to make an application and to find out what sort of evidence you will need to provide for it to be successful.

For any type of dumping or subsidy investigation, an application must be made by, or on behalf of, a UK industry producing like goods (“applicant UK industry”). To apply for a safeguard investigation, the application must be made by, or on behalf of, UK producers of the like goods and directly competitive goods (“applicant UK producers).

The applicant UK industry or applicant UK producers must have a sufficient market share in the relevant goods (known as the “market share requirement”), unless this requirement has been waived.

Furthermore, an application for a dumping or subsidy investigation must be supported by the UK industry in the like goods. An application for a safeguard investigation must be supported by the UK producers of the like goods and directly competitive goods. This means that the support for the application must be greater than the opposition, and supporting UK producers must account for at least 25% of all UK production of the goods (the “standing requirement”).

An application must contain as much of the information that is listed as required in the relevant regulations as is reasonably available.

UK industry in the goods

In our investigations we must determine whether injury is caused by the imported goods to a UK industry in the like goods. Like goods are goods that are identical with the imported goods subject to the application. Where no identical goods exist, like goods are those goods which have characteristics that closely resemble those of the goods subject to the application.

To initiate a dumping or subsidy investigations, we must confirm that the application is made by or on behalf of UK industry in the like goods. When we are identifying like goods (and UK producers thereof), we will consider:

physical characteristics, such as dimensions, appearance, weight, composition or quality
commercial characteristics, including end use, competition or distribution channels.

In safeguard cases, we must determine whether serious injury is caused by the imported goods to UK producers of directly competitive goods in addition to like goods. Directly competitive goods are goods produced in the UK which directly compete with the imported goods.

For further information on like goods and directly competitive goods, you can consult our TRA’s investigation process guidance guidance.

For dumping and subsidy investigations, the market share requirement is met if we are satisfied that the UK industry’s market share is:

at least 1% of the market
a higher share that we consider appropriate when we consider the goods in question and the particular market for those goods

For safeguard investigations, the same market share requirement must be met, but for UK producers of the like and directly competitive goods.

We can also waive the market share requirement and initiate an investigation even where the requirement has not been met.

Standing requirement

For dumping and subsidy investigations, the standing requirement is met where an application:

is supported by UK producers whose collective output makes up at least 25% of the total UK production of like goods; and
is not opposed by other UK producers whose collective output is greater than or equal to that percentage.

For safeguard investigations, this same standing requirement must be met, but for UK producers of the like and directly competitive goods.

Information that is ‘reasonably available’

The regulations for each type of investigation require the applicant to provide as much information as is ‘reasonably available’ to them from a list of information.

Further requirements

Beyond the above-mentioned general requirements, there are some additional criteria for the different types of investigation, which are described below.

Information about the goods and stakeholders

Your application should include as much of the following information as is reasonably available to you:

a description of the goods in relation to which you make an, including their:
technical characteristics
current tariff classification
a statement identifying the exporting country or countries of those goods
details of all known overseas exporters and UK importers of these goods
details of all known UK producers and associations of UK producers of like goods

In accordance with the standing requirement, you should also include information about the level of UK industry support for or opposition to the application, including:

the total volume and value of production in the UK of like goods
the volume and value of production in the UK of like goods which are produced by the applicant UK industry as well as by each identified UK producer, or association of such UK producers
each identified UK producer’s support or opposition to the application

You should also include information that shows that the market share requirement is met.

If you are applying for a safeguard investigation, you will need to provide information relating to directly competitive goods in addition to like goods.

Additional requirements for dumping investigations

For us to initiate a dumping investigation, we must be satisfied that your application contains sufficient evidence that:

goods have been or are being dumped into the UK
the dumping margin for those goods is not minimal*
the dumped imports are causing injury to the UK industry
neither the volume of dumped imports nor injury is negligible**

*We consider the dumping margin minimal if it is less than 2% of the export price.

**The import volume is considered negligible if the volume of dumped imports coming from any individual country is less than 3% of imports of like goods into the UK. This does not apply when exporting countries individually account for less than 3% of dumped imports but collectively account for more than 7% of dumped imports. Injury is deemed negligible if the injury margin is less than 2%.

In your application, include as much of the following information as is reasonably available to you:

information to show that the goods in your application have been or are being dumped in the UK
information on the volumes of these imports
information to show that the imports have caused or are causing injury or threat of material injury to UK industry, including:
how the volumes of imports have changed over time
the effect of the imports on prices of the like goods produced and sold in the UK
the impact of the dumped goods on UK industry

If your application claims that there is a Particular Market Situation (PMS) in the exporting country, you must provide relevant evidence of the specific PMS and what it affects.

A PMS in a country means that it is not appropriate to use data relating to domestic sales of the relevant goods on the exporters’ market because this does not permit a proper comparison with the data relating to exports of these goods to the UK for the purpose of making a dumping determination. This may be, for example, because:

prices are artificially low
there is significant barter trade
prices reflect non-commercial factors

For more information on these issues, see our Determining dumping and calculating dumping margins guidance.

Additional requirements for subsidy investigations

For us to initiate a subsidy investigation, we must be satisfied that your application contains sufficient evidence that:

subsidised goods have been or are being imported into the UK
the subsidy is countervailable
the subsidy amount is not minimal*
the subsidised imports are causing injury to the UK industry
neither the volume of subsidised imports nor injury is negligible**

A subsidy is countervailable if it is specific to certain companies or industries (rather than general) and when it is granted either directly or indirectly for the manufacture, production, export or transport of goods.

*We consider the subsidy amount to be minimal if it is less than 1% of the estimated value of the goods (or less than 2% in the case of a developing country).

**The import volume is considered negligible if the volume of subsidised imports coming from any individual country is less than 3% of imports of like goods into the UK (less than 4% in the case of a developing country). This does not apply when exporting countries individually account for less than 3% of subsidised imports but collectively account for more than 7% of subsidised imports (more than 9% in the case of a developing country). Injury is deemed negligible if the injury margin is less than 2%.

In your application, include as much of the following information as is reasonably available to you:

information to show that the goods in your application have been or are being subsidised and that the subsidy is countervailable
information on the volumes of these imports
information to show that the imports have caused or are causing injury or threat of material injury to UK industry, including:
how the volumes of imports have changed over time
the effect of these imports on prices of the like goods produced and sold in the UK
the impact of the subsidised imports on UK industry

For more information on these issues, see our Determining countervailing subsidies and calculating subsidy amounts guidance.

Additional requirements for safeguard investigations

For us to initiate a safeguard investigation, we must be satisfied that the application contains sufficient evidence that:
- the goods have been or are being imported into the UK in increased quantities

there have been unforeseen developments leading to the increased imports
this increased quantity of imports is causing serious injury to the related UK industry

In your application, include as much of the following information as is reasonably available to you:

contact details of the applicant UK producers
description of the like goods and directly competitive goods produced in the UK
information on the increase in imports you believe has taken place, with details on whether this increase is absolute, relative to domestic production or both
information about the existence of serious injury to the UK producers (this should be for the three calendar years preceding the application and include any more recent partial-year data that is available)
information about any unforeseen developments that you believe led to increased imports of the goods

The application must also be accompanied by a preliminary adjustment plan (though we may waive this requirement in some cases). Safeguard measures are designed to provide interim relief to the industry, so it is important for producers to identify how they will adjust to the increased quantities of imports. We ask them to provide an adjustment plan which will explain this. It may include, for instance, details of research and development initiatives or potential innovations which may improve their competitiveness. It could also indicate how the producers intend to introduce efficiencies such as investment in machinery or improving workforce effectiveness.

If you are applying for a safeguard investigation in relation to goods that had previously been subject to safeguarding measure, a new safeguard measure cannot be applied to these until a period of time has elapsed which is at least as long as the period the previous measure covered. For example, if a safeguard measure was in effect for five years, another measure cannot be applied until five years after the previous measure elapsed.

There is also a lower limit to the period of time that must elapse between safeguard remedies – a new remedy cannot be applied until at least two years and one day after the last one expired, regardless of the length of time the previous remedy covered.

UK producers can request a provisional safeguard remedy to be applied at the beginning of our investigation if they believe that a delay would cause damage to the UK industry which would be difficult to repair. If you want to do this, your application should include:

statement giving your specific reasons for requesting a provisional safeguard remedy, including the critical circumstances which mean delay in taking action would cause damage to UK producers
a statement indicating the level of tariff increase you are looking for

For more information on these issues, see our Determining safeguard measures TROG.

Question 5

Requirements for a review to be initiated

Accepted Answer

There are certain requirements which an application must meet for us to initiate a review. It is helpful to know about these when you are considering whether to make an application and to find out what sort of evidence you will need to provide for it to be successful.

The requirements differ for each type of review.

Requirements for a review of an anti-dumping or countervailing measure

For detailed information about the types of reviews of anti-dumping and countervailing measures, see our Reviews of anti-dumping and countervailing measures guidance.

Interim review

Review can be requested by or on behalf of an interested party (or the TRA can self-initiate).

If requested, an interim review can only be initiated after one year has passed since measure was imposed or previously altered.

The application must include evidence that there has been a change in circumstances which is of a lasting nature, and that one of the following applies:

the continued imposition of the measure is not necessary to offset the relevant dumping or subsidisation
the injury would be unlikely to continue or recur if the measure were removed or varied
the measure is not sufficient to offset the injury caused by the dumped goods or subsidised imports

Expiry review

Review can be requested by or on behalf of UK industry in the like goods (or the TRA can self-initiate).

Application must be made at least three months but not more than 12 months before the measure is due to expire.

Application must include evidence that:

the dumping or subsidisation of the goods subject to review is likely to continue or recur if the application of the definitive measure were to expire
injury caused by the dumped goods or subsidised goods is likely to continue or recur if the application of the definitive measure were to expire

New exporter review

Review can be requested by or on behalf of a new exporter.

Application must include evidence that:

the applicant is not related to any overseas exporter who is subject to the relevant measure and who exported the goods subject to review to the UK5 during the period of investigation on which the measure is based
the applicant did not export the goods subject to review to the UK* during the period of investigation on which the measure is based
the applicant is exporting the goods subject to review to the UK or has contractual obligation to export these to the UK in significant quantities

Absorption review

Review can be requested by or on behalf of an interested party (or the TRA can self-initiate).

Review can only be requested in relation to an existing anti-dumping measure.

Application must include evidence that after the period of investigation on which the anti-dumping measure is based export prices of the goods subject to review have decreased, or there has been no or insufficient movement in the resale price or subsequent selling prices of the imported goods subject to review.

Circumvention review

Review can be requested by or on behalf of an interested party (or the TRA can self-initiate).

Application must include sufficient evidence that the measure is being or has been circumvented.

You should include a detailed description of how the circumvention is happening, who is involved and the effect on the original measure.

Scope review

Review can be requested by or on behalf of an interested party (or the TRA can self-initiate)

If not self-initiated, a review can only be initiated after one year has passed since measure was imposed or previously altered.

Application must include evidence that allows us to assess whether:

the goods or their description should be varied
the nature of the variation does not justify a new trade remedies investigation

If the application is made in relation to a transitioned measure, the application must include evidence that the applicant or related overseas exporter did not export the goods to the European Union during the period of investigation on which the measure is based.*

If the application is made in relation to an existing anti-dumping or countervailing measure, we will also consider the following criteria, in addition to the requirements listed above, before making a decision whether to accept your application and initiate a review:

whether the review application is made in relation to a change in circumstances that is of a lasting nature
whether the review application relates to matters which are similar to those considered in a previous review of the relevant measure and whether there has been a change in circumstances since the termination of that review which substantiates the need for a new review
whether the review application relates to matters which are similar to those or set out in a previously rejected review application in respect of the relevant measure and whether there has been a change in circumstances since the rejection of that review application which substantiates the need for a new review

If we decide to initiate a review of an anti-dumping or countervailing measure, we may consider whether to expand or limit the matters to be considered in the review. Before doing so, we will provide interested parties with an opportunity to comment.

Requirements for a review of a safeguard measure

For detailed information about the types of reviews of safeguard measures, see our Reviews of safeguard measures guidance.

Extension review

Review can be requested by or on behalf of the UK producers (or the TRA can self-initiate).

Application must not be made more than 12 months before the safeguard measure is due to expire.

You should include information to show whether:

the importation of the goods subject to review in increased quantities is likely to recur if the safeguard measure is not extended
serious injury has been removed or reduced since the application of the safeguard measure
serious injury is likely to continue or recur if the safeguard measure is not extended
the circumstances of UK producers, or domestic or overseas market conditions, are such that serious injury caused by increased imports of the goods subject to review is likely to recur
UK producers have (partially) implemented their adjustment plans

Mid-term review

Review cannot be applied for (if a safeguard measure is put in place for longer than three years, the TRA must carry out a mid-term review no later than halfway through this period.

Discontinuation review

Review cannot be applied for (the TRA can self-initiate if we have sufficient information indicating that there may have been a lasting change in circumstances since the safeguarding remedy was imposed, and the UK producers may no longer be suffering or may cease to suffer serious injury if the safeguarding remedy is revoked).

Tariff rate quota review

Review can be requested by or on behalf of an interested party (or the TRA can self-initiate);

Review may not be initiated before six months have passed since one of the following has been concluded:

a safeguard investigation
mid-term review
extension review
transition review
application must include sufficient information that there may have been a change in circumstances since the application of the TRQ

If we decide to initiate a review of a safeguarding measure, we may consider whether to expand or limit the matters to be considered in the review. Before doing so, we will provide interested parties with an opportunity to comment.

Question 6

Requirements for other investigations

Accepted Answer

We may also conduct one of the following investigations and reviews:

Furthermore, the Secretary of State may ask us to conduct early reviews and investigations in light of an international dispute decision.

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