The EU renews anti-dumping duties on Chinese ceramic tiles

With this second renewal, the European Commission has extended the anti-dumping measures until 2029 while maintaining the existing duty rates.

The European Commission has extended its anti-dumping measures on imports of Chinese ceramic tiles into the EU for a further five years until February 2029, maintaining the duty rates already in place. Initially imposed in 2011, the measures were extended for the first time in 2017.

The process leading to this second renewal was initiated on 30 June 2022, when the Commission began its investigations in response to a request from the European Ceramic Tile Manufacturers’ Federation CET with the support of Confindustria Ceramica. On examining a sample of manufacturers exporting from the People’s Republic of China and manufacturers located in the European Union, the Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade concluded that the dumping practices observed in previous investigations were likely to reoccur and potentially harm the European ceramic tile industry.

In view of the large unused production capacities of Chinese producers and the strong appeal of the EU market, the Commission concluded that without the renewal of anti-dumping measures, the EU internal market would be flooded with cheap Chinese ceramic tiles produced to much lower sustainability standards than those adopted in Europe.

To ensure a level playing field, the European Union published the Commission Implementing Regulation 2024/493 extending anti-dumping duties, which average at 30.6% for cooperating companies and 69.7% for all others. Since they were introduced in 2011, anti-dumping duties have resulted in a steady year-on-year decline in China’s exports to the EU, dropping from more than 60 million square metres prior to 2011 to around 2 million square metres in 2022.

The EU ceramic tile industry generates annual revenues of €13.6 billion and consists of manufacturers located in 25 member states with a direct workforce of 55,000 people. Some 80% of the sector consists of SMEs, which make an essential contribution to local employment.