Import Safeguarding - What Does it Mean?

Import Safeguarding - What does it mean??

**Read the latest information published 22nd?June** -?Details?here.?

The?import quota?means?physical limitation of the quantities of different products to be imported from foreign countries within a specified time period.

Anti-Dumping Duties?are introduced to protect the UK industry from the possible damage caused by the dumping of low-priced goods on the UK market.

Countervailing Duty?applies to goods that have benefited from government subsidies in their country of origin.

In the UK, the measures are decided by the Department of International Trade (DIT) with whom the Secretary of State for International Trade has the ultimate responsibility.

The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the?Department for International Trade. Their role is to investigate whether new trade remedies are needed to prevent injury to UK industries, caused by unfair trading practices and unforeseen surges in imports.

The Sheffield International Trade Centre (SITC) has been deeply involved with these issues throughout 2021?to date. Being a steel and metal bashing region, South Yorkshire businesses have been seriously affected by these measures and, due to the nature of what we do, we rarely hear of the positive effects of such measures, only the negative effects.

What is the Sheffield international Trade Centre doing to help business?

In 2021 we set up a lobby group with the British Chamber of Commerce to address the issues immediately facing Industry.?

• We have kept the South Yorkshire stakeholder companies informed of news, or changes to the quota and antidumping rulings.
• Our Customs Broker services double check all importing and exporting product commodity codes as a matter of course?to ensure no special controls are under those products, informing companies immediately if there are measures.
• In June 2022, I have had meetings with the CEO of the Trade Remedies Authority, the Head of Investigations, and the Negotiator for Steel Safeguards.?Today (Thursday 30th?June), I am at a conference in London and will question the Secretary of State for Trade.
• We are in the process of arranging a visit to Sheffield by the TRA and or DIT later this year, to host a round table meeting with companies to discuss and understand the positioning of the government.
• By keeping in constant communication with the Head of Trade Policy at the BCC, and the MD of ChamberCustoms, the SITC is putting the concerns of South Yorkshire businesses directly to the TRA, DIT and government.

We are getting results!

"Following an HMRC notice at the end of May that Anti Dumping duties of 128.75% were to come into force on the 16th June, I contacted the Sheffield International Trade Centre, raising concerns that, whilst we support the ruling, this was unfair as timescales hadn’t given business’ the opportunity to re-source. In fact this would apply to two deliveries that were inbound shortly, deliveries that were at sea and couldn’t be stopped.

Without delay they managed to get the ruling overturned so the containers arriving by sea at the end of June would not be subject to the 128.7% duty."

Without the assistance of Nick and colleagues at the British Chambers of Commerce, this essential raw material would render our finished product unprofitable.

Our sincere thanks to team for their help and support." - Equi-trek

For the full report and to see the latest round of safeguarding news, which could have some considerable effect on South Yorkshire importing companies, please see?here.

If your business has been affected by Safeguarding measures, please contact Nick Patrick at the Sheffield International Trade Centre: 0114 213 2991 or email?[email protected]