Guidance

How to make an application for a trade remedies investigation

Updated 12 April 2024

The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) is responsible for investigating whether new trade remedy measures are needed to counteract the effects of dumped goods, subsidised imports or a sudden flood of imports and help ensure a level playing-field for UK industries. When a UK industry applies to us for a new measure, we will review their application and investigate whether a measure is required.

This guidance covers:

• how we assess an application for a new measure
• the requirements an application must meet for us to initiate an investigation
• what to include in your application to us

The information provided here should be used as a guide only and does not guarantee that any application will result in an investigation or in measures being imposed. We encourage you to contact the Pre-Application Office before you formally submit an application.

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

Paragraph 9 of Schedule 4 covers the requirements an application must meet for us to initiate a dumping or subsidy investigation. Paragraph 7 of Schedule 5 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 Regs)

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

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

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

World Trade Organization (WTO) – relevant provisions

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

• for dumping investigations, see Article 5 of the Anti-Dumping Agreement
• for subsidy investigations, see Article 11 of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures
• for safeguard investigations, see Article 2 of the Agreement on Safeguards

How our application process works

Our online Trade Remedies Service provides an end-to-end process for managing cases. Once you register, you can submit your application online to this service, submit and review documents and receive updates throughout the entire case. This is also where non-confidential versions of documents are made available on our public file.

Making an application

If you are a UK producer and you believe that dumped or subsidised imports or a sudden increase of imports are affecting 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.

To apply for a trade remedies investigation, you will need to register on our Trade Remedies Service and complete the appropriate application form for a dumping, subsidy or safeguard investigation. If you are not sure which type of investigation is appropriate to you, you can consult our guidance on gov.uk or contact our Pre-Application Office. When applying, make sure you:

• answer all questions which relate to the measure you are applying for and complete all attachments
• supply a non-confidential version of your application form
• sign the completed application as described on the form

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 Pre-Application Office (PAO) can advise you on how to make anti-dumping, subsidy and safeguard applications, as well as providing responses to ad hoc queries.

We encourage you to contact the Pre-Application Office 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 guidance or contact the PAO on contact@traderemedies.gov.uk.

How long our application assessment process takes

Once we’ve assessed your application, we will notify you through the Trade Remedies Service to tell you whether we will initiate an investigation based on your application. This should normally happen within 40 days of submission for dumping and subsidy investigations and within 30 days of submission for safeguard investigations.

Withdrawing an application

You can withdraw an application by letting us know through the Trade Remedies Service. If you do this before we publish the notice of initiation, the application will not appear on the public file and we will not assess it.

How we share information about applications to us

We won’t publicly share the fact that we have received an application until and unless we initiate an investigation. 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

Once we accept an application, we will communicate our decision as follows:

• we will notify the government of the exporting country concerned
• for subsidy investigations, we will invite the foreign government concerned to participate in consultations
• for safeguard investigations, we will notify the WTO

When we initiate our investigation, we will announce this in a notice published through the Trade Remedies Service.

For dumping and subsidy investigations, once we have published a notice of initiation, we will publish the non-confidential version of the application on the public file and notify:

• overseas exporters which are known to us
• where applicable, the government of the foreign country related to the investigation

If the number of overseas exporters involved makes it impractical for us to contact them all individually, we may only notify the relevant foreign government.

When parties provide us with documents as part of our investigation, we will also ask for a non-confidential version of each document which we can make available on our public file. We won’t publish confidential documents.

How we assess your application

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

While we don’t 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, it won’t change the time period in which we consider your application.

Deciding whether to accept your application

If your application meets the requirements for us to initiate an investigation, we will advise you of this. We will also let you know about any further information we need from you. You can find further guidance on this in our Investigation Process guidance. If the application doesn’t meet the 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.

Requirements for a trade remedy investigation to be initiated

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 investigation, your application must meet all the following requirements:

• the application is made by, or on behalf of, a UK industry producing like goods to the imports the application is about
• the UK industry applying for the measure has a sufficient market share in the relevant goods (known as the market share requirement)
• the application is supported by the UK industry – producer support for the application is greater than producer opposition and represents at least 25% of all UK production of these goods (the standing requirement)
• the application contains as much of the information that is listed as required in the relevant regulations as is reasonably available

These conditions are explained more fully below.

Like and directly competitive goods

Our investigations look at the injury caused by imported goods to UK industries which produces goods which are identical or closely resemble these imports. These are known as ‘like goods’.

When we are identifying like goods, we will consider the following non-exhaustive list of criteria:

• physical likeness, such as physical characteristics
• commercial likeness, including competition and distribution channels
• functional likeness, such as end-use or if the goods can be substituted for each other
• similarities in production, such as method and inputs
• other relevant characteristics

In safeguard cases, we will also consider the UK industries for directly competitive goods as well as like goods.

Market share requirement

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 like or directly competitive goods. For more information on this, consult our guidance on safeguard investigations.

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.

Again, for safeguard investigations, this same standing requirement must be met, but for goods which are like or directly competitive to the goods we are investigating. For more information on this, consult our guidance on safeguard investigations.

Information that is ‘reasonably available’

The regulations for each type of investigation ask for specific types of evidence to be provided, or as much information as is ‘reasonably available’ to the applicant.

Beyond these general requirements, there are some additional criteria for different types of investigation, which are described below.

Additional requirements for dumping investigations

For us to initiate a dumping investigation, the application must contain 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.

Providing evidence about a Particular Market Situation

A particular market situation in a country means sales don’t allow a proper comparison. This may be, for example, because:

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

If your application claims that there is a Particular Market Situation (PMS) in the exporting country, please make sure that you provide evidence about which factors are leading to prices not permitting a proper comparison.

For more information on these issues, please see our dumping and injury guidance.

Additional requirements for subsidy investigations

For us to initiate a subsidy investigation, the application must contain 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.

‘Minimal’, for developed countries, means a subsidy amount that is less than 1% of the estimated value of the goods (2% in the case of a developing country).

‘Negligible’ is where the exporting country accounts for less than 3% of imports of the goods in question into the UK (less than 4% in the case of a developing country). The other exception to this is where the exporting countries individually account for less than 3%, but collectively account for more than 7% of imports of the goods concerned.

For more information on these issues, please see our subsidy and injury guidance.

Additional requirements for safeguard investigations

For us to initiate a safeguard investigation, the application must contain sufficient evidence that:

• the goods have been or are being imported into the UK in increased quantities
• this increased quantity of imports is causing serious injury to the related UK industry

The application must also be accompanied by a preliminary adjustment plan (though we may waive this requirement in some cases). This is a plan which UK producers should include in their application setting out how they plan to adjust to the increased imports.

For more information on these issues, please see our safeguard and injury guidance.

What to include in your application

As detailed above, we will only initiate an investigation where your application contains sufficient evidence. In addition to meeting the sufficient evidence threshold, your application should include as much information as possible on particular subjects. In the regulations, this is described as what is ‘reasonably available’ to you, and largely covers similar ground to evidentiary requirements. This includes the following information:

• a description of the imported goods your application is about, including their:
• technical characteristics
• current tariff classification
• a statement identifying the exporting country or countries
• 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
• 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 UK industry making the application (and by each identified UK producer or association)
• each identified UK producer’s support or opposition to the application
• information that shows that the market share requirement is met

If you are asking for a safeguard investigation, you will need to provide information for directly competitive goods as well as like goods.

Dumping investigations – additional content to include

If you are applying for a dumping investigation, please include as much information as you can to cover the following points:

• 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
• evidence that the imports have caused or are causing injury or threat of material injury to UK industry, including:
• the effect of the imports on prices in the UK market for like goods
• the impact of the dumped goods on UK industry

Subsidy investigations – additional content to include

If you are applying for a subsidy investigation, please include as much information as you can to cover the following points:

• information to show that the goods in your application have been or are being subsidised and that the subsidy is countervailable (see our subsidy guidance for more information on this)
• the volume of the goods being imported
• information to show that the imports have caused or are causing 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 in the UK
• the impact of the subsidised imports on your industry

Safeguard investigations – additional content to include

If you are applying for a safeguard investigation, please include as much information as possible to cover the following points:

• 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
• any serious injury to the UK producers of the goods (this should be for the three calendar years preceding the application and include any more recent partial-year data that is available)
• any unforeseen developments that you believe led to increased imports of the goods

Provisional safeguard remedies

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:

• a 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.

Once your application is complete, you can submit it to us through our online Trade Remedies Service and we will assess it and contact you to let you know what will happen next.

For further information, see our guidance on our investigation processes and specific guidance on how we carry out dumping, subsidy and safeguard investigations.