On 5 May 2026 the European Commission confirmed a definitive anti-dumping duty of between 29.1% and 42.3% on adipic acid imported from China, set out in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/913 (European Commission, 5 May 2026). Adipic acid is a nylon feedstock that few European importers will ever order. Read the announcement anyway, because one line in it applies to every product you do import: when the EU puts an anti-dumping duty on a Chinese good, the company that pays is the importer of record in Europe. On your orders, that is you.
Adipic acid was not unusual. In March the Commission set a 122.8% duty on Chinese phosphorous acid (European Commission, 18 March 2026), and in February it renewed measures on Chinese steel road wheels under Regulation (EU) 2026/428. The categories European buyers actually import are well inside the net. Electric bikes from China carry anti-dumping duties of 10.3% to 70.1% on top of countervailing duties of 3.9% to 17.2%, renewed for another five years from January 2025 and now running to 2030 (European Commission, 24 January 2025). Ceramic tableware and aluminium road wheels sit under their own measures. If you bring in e-bikes, kitchenware or metal hardware, an anti-dumping file is a live commercial risk on your next order.
How an anti-dumping duty becomes your problem
The price your supplier quotes is for the goods, FOB or DDP. It does not include an EU anti-dumping duty, because that duty is charged at the border, against your EU VAT number, and collected by your own national customs authority. On a €60,000 order of a product that carries a 40% duty, that is €24,000 you never budgeted, payable before the container clears.
Timing makes it sharper. Since late 2024 the Commission automatically registers every import of a product that is under a trade-defence investigation, for the express purpose of collecting duties retroactively once a measure is confirmed, reaching back up to 90 days before provisional duties take effect (European Commission, 24 September 2024). Ordering during an open investigation does not buy you a quiet window. Those shipments are already on the register.
The exporter you chose decides the number. Anti-dumping duties are set per company. A named, cooperating manufacturer might carry a rate near the floor, while the residual rate for "all other companies" on the same product can be the maximum. Buy the identical item from a trader who ships under the wrong company code and you pay the high rate. If that trader is moving goods specifically to dodge a duty, the Commission can rule it circumvention and extend the duty to those shipments, backdated. The factory moves on. Your company is the name on the customs entry.
How to check before you wire money
Run the product's ten-digit TARIC code through the Commission's TARIC database before you place the order. TARIC is maintained by DG TAXUD, updated daily, and is the authoritative record of which goods carry anti-dumping and countervailing duties. Check the code against China as the country of origin, and read the measure against your specific supplier, because the rate can swing on the exporter's additional code, not only the product heading.
Then confirm the exporter on your paperwork is the entity whose rate you are relying on. A low company-specific duty only applies if that company genuinely makes and ships your goods, under its own TARIC additional code. This is the point where supplier verification turns into real money: the gap between a 10% duty and a 70% one is often just which legal entity is named on the export documents. Our guide to verifying a Chinese supplier covers how to pin that down, and if you are quoting DDP, the duty is still legally yours even when the forwarder fronts the cash.
Last, track the open investigations on your category. The Commission publishes initiation notices in the Official Journal; a proceeding on certain acrylic esters from China opened earlier in 2026 under Notice C/2026/1469. The day your product appears in one, every order you place is registered against a duty that does not exist yet.
Where Mila Sourcing fits
A duty surprise almost always traces back to one gap: not knowing exactly which entity makes and exports your goods. That is the first thing a Mila agent settles on the ground, before any deposit moves: the producing factory, its business licence, and the export company that will appear on your customs paperwork, written into a bilingual contract. When the exporter on your entry is the one you verified, the TARIC rate you priced is the rate you pay.
Earlier in the process? Supplier sourcing in China and how to find reliable suppliers in China cover the steps before the duty question lands.
Sources: European Commission, definitive duties on adipic acid from China, 5 May 2026; European Commission, phosphorous acid duties, 18 March 2026; European Commission, e-bike duties extended, 24 January 2025; European Commission, registration of imports under trade-defence investigations, 24 September 2024; European Commission TARIC database (DG TAXUD).