The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) is to reconsider its recommendation to impose a new ‘anti-dumping’ measure on imports of certain excavators from China following requests from LiuGong Group and Caterpillar.
Last year, the secretary of state for business and trade imposed tariffs on excavators imported from China to the UK of up to 40% following the TRA’s recommendation.
The recommendation followed an investigation by British construction equipment manufacturer JCB, claiming that heavily state-subsidised Chinese manufacturers have increasingly targeted the UK market with cut-price excavators.
In international trade, ‘dumping’ refers to the export of a product at a lower price in the foreign importing market than the price in the exporter’s domestic market.
Chinese heavy equipment manufacturer LiuGong has claimed that battery electric machines should not be included within the definition of the goods and the tariff imposed. It has requested that these machines be removed from the description of the goods and all related tariffs.
US-based Caterpillar has questioned the TRA’s calculation of the individual anti-dumping amount that was calculated for it as the sampled cooperating overseas exporter to the original investigation.
It has asked the TRA to recalculate the injury margin, dumping margin, injury and causal link determination and the form of the anti-dumping measures.
The existing tariffs will remain in place while the TRA reconsiders its recommendation.
