The EU and UK Both Opened PVC Anti-Dumping Cases in 2026
The EU opened PVC case AD762 on 23 September 2026; the UK opened its own S-PVC case on 4 August 2026. Both register imports, so duties can run backwards.
Two trade-remedy cases now sit over PVC resin going into Europe. Neither has produced a duty yet. Both have already put importers on the hook for one.
The European Commission opened anti-dumping case AD762 on 23 September 2026, covering suspension-polymerised PVC (S-PVC) and mass-polymerised PVC (M-PVC) from China, the Republic of Korea, Mexico and Taiwan, China. The United Kingdom opened its own investigation five weeks earlier, on 4 August 2026, covering S-PVC from China, Mexico and the Republic of Korea.
What matters here is not the allegation but the import registration both authorities put in place before any duty exists.
Quick answer: Both cases are still at the investigation stage. No duty has been imposed and no rate has been set. What already exists is import registration. The UK started registering S-PVC entries on 11 August 2026, and the EU has stated that imports will be registered early in its case. Registration is the mechanism that lets duties be collected on cargoes that cleared customs months before a decision. The work now is to know which of your shipments are registered, keep the entry evidence, and price the contingent liability into today's contracts.
1. What was actually opened
| Case | Authority | Opened | Origins covered | Product scope | Customs codes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AD762 | European Commission | 23 September 2026 | China; Republic of Korea; Mexico; Taiwan, China | S-PVC and M-PVC in pure form, not mixed with any other substance. Commodity, extender and specialty S-PVC are named. Emulsion PVC (E-PVC, paste resin) is excluded | CN ex 3904 10 00; TARIC 3904 10 00 21 and 3904 10 00 81 |
| S-PVC case | UK Trade Remedies Authority | 4 August 2026 | China; Mexico; Republic of Korea | S-PVC, not mixed with any other substance | UK Global Tariff 3904 1000 15 and 3904 1000 80 |
The EU case follows a complaint lodged on 10 August 2026 by the PVC Trade Committee, formed by European producers Inovyn, Kem One and Vynova. The UK case follows an application by INOVYN ChlorVinyls Ltd, described by the TRA as the UK's only S-PVC producer.
The two investigation windows differ, and that is the first thing to check when a counterparty quotes "last year" at you.
| Case | Dumping / investigation period | Injury period |
|---|---|---|
| EU AD762 | 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 | trends reviewed back to January 2022 |
| UK S-PVC | 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026 | 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2026 |
Primary records:
- UK TRA: initiation of the S-PVC investigation, 4 August 2026
- UK registration of S-PVC imports, effective 11 August 2026
- Case note on the four EU investigations opened on 23 and 24 September 2026, including AD762
2. Registration is the part with teeth
A registration obligation does not mean a duty is coming. It preserves the right to collect one later, on goods already in the country.
| Where | What registration means, in the published documents |
|---|---|
| UK | HMRC registers imports of the goods from 11 August 2026 on the Secretary of State's instruction. Where a definitive remedy is implemented, duty may be payable from a date up to 90 days preceding the implementation of any provisional remedy. Registration continues until the investigation concludes |
| EU | Imports of the goods are to be subject to registration at an early stage of the investigation; the regulation imposing registration is published in good time |
The earlier EU proceeding on S-PVC from Egypt and the United States was initiated in November 2023, produced provisional duties in July 2024, and ended in definitive company-specific duties under Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/36, with the provisional duty definitively collected. Anyone who imported during the registration window paid the final bill for that cargo.
Put in plain commercial terms: a container clearing customs this month can carry a liability quantified next year, at a rate nobody can state today. That belongs in your landed cost per ton, not in a folder marked "trade news".
3. Where the two cases are not the same
| Point | EU AD762 | UK S-PVC |
|---|---|---|
| Product scope | S-PVC and M-PVC | S-PVC only |
| Origins covered | China, Korea, Mexico, Taiwan, China | China, Mexico, Korea |
| Paste resin (E-PVC) | explicitly excluded | outside the goods description |
| Who registers | European Commission directs registration; any measure applies to the Union as a whole | HMRC registers on TRA instruction |
| Extra hurdle before a measure | none published | an economic interest test, if the TRA recommends a remedy |
| Next steps as generally expected | provisional measures normally within about nine months of initiation, definitive within about fifteen; a procedural expectation, not a committed date | registration runs until the case concludes; a definitive remedy could reach back up to 90 days |
One consequence follows. A supplier shipping the same grade to both markets now answers two questionnaires with different periods and different product definitions, and the answers may not match. And "Europe" is no longer one destination: the UK and the EU run separate clocks.
4. Two arguments that will decide the rate, if there is a rate
These come from the complaint and from case reporting. None of it is decided, and none should be repeated to a customer as fact. It is here because it hints at which origin a measure would hit hardest.
- China and Article 2(6a). The Commission is reported to be treating China as subject to significant market distortions, constructing normal value from undistorted benchmarks, with Malaysia proposed as the representative country. In Chinese chemical cases this method has produced wide margins.
- Calcium carbide and Article 7(2a). The complaint invokes the raw-material distortion provision: carbide is a large share of production cost on the carbide route, and the argument is that its domestic price is held down by mining and licensing rules. If accepted, the lesser-duty rule can be set aside and duty set at the full dumping margin.
- Korea, Taiwan, China and Mexico. Korea and Taiwan, China face a "particular market situation" allegation; for Mexico the complaint argues domestic prices are not reliable and normal value has to be constructed.
Read together, they point at one conclusion a buyer can act on: if a measure lands, which producer entity your material comes from may matter more than the price you negotiated. An examined exporter can receive a company-specific rate; everyone else falls to a residual country-wide rate, usually the punitive one.
5. What to do now
| When | Action | Keep for the file |
|---|---|---|
| This week | List every purchase order and every in-transit shipment into the EU and the UK, by origin, grade and customs code | A one-page exposure list with entry dates |
| This week | Ask each supplier which tariff code they will declare: TARIC 3904 10 00 21 or 81 for the EU; 3904 1000 15 or 80 for the UK | Written confirmation, per shipment |
| This week | Confirm who is importer of record, and whether your customs broker registers the entry for you | The broker's written note |
| Before signing | Add a duty-contingency clause: who bears retroactively collected duty, and by what date the buyer must be informed | The signed clause |
| Before the next quotation | Model one duty-inclusive scenario and one alternative origin or grade | The comparison sheet |
| During the case | If you are an importer or user, decide whether to register as an interested party and request a hearing inside the deadline | Your submission reference |
| Ongoing | Re-check scope case by case. Paste resin is outside both of these, which does not mean it is outside the next one | A dated scope note |
6. Four questions to put to the supplier in writing
- Which tariff code will appear on the EU and UK entries for my cargo?
- Is the material S-PVC or M-PVC, and is it commodity, extender or specialty grade?
- Which producing company, and which production site, are named on the certificate of analysis?
- If a definitive measure applies to cargo that has already shipped, what happens to the duty on that cargo?
Question 3 is the one buyers skip, and it decides whether a company-specific rate is reachable for your material at all. Every exporter the authority did not examine separately falls to the residual country-wide rate, usually the worst number in the table.
None of the above predicts the outcome of either case, and nothing here is legal advice. It is the part a buyer can control: knowing which entries are registered, holding the paperwork that proves it, and having a clause that says who pays if a rate arrives after the goods are used.
If you are sourcing PVC resin for a market where trade measures are moving, send us the grade, the quantity and the destination and we will quote with that destination's tariff position stated in writing. We usually reply within 12 hours, GMT+8.
Next: China's PVC resin standards are being replaced in 2027, which covers the documentary side of the same question: which standard edition your certificate is issued against.
Need SG-5 to land before your next production run?
Tell us the grade, the tonnage and the destination port. We come back with a price, a specification sheet and the full document list, usually within 12 hours (GMT+8).