EU amends regulation on additional customs duties on US imports
The EU authorities have published in the Official Journal an amendment to the Regulation on additional customs duties on the imports of certain products originating in the United States of America. This is in response to the excessively high administrative costs of collecting the customs duties, as these are economically negligible.
Regulation (EU) 2025/783 of the European Parliament and of the Council aims to adjust the additional customs duties on the imports of certain products from the United States. It amends previous Regulation 2018/196, which was adopted in response to the United States’ Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act being incompatible with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements. The United States have been unable to bring their legislation into line with these agreements, hence the European Union imposed additional duties at 4.3 per cent on the imports of the products concerned.
In accordance with the WTO’s authorisation to suspend the application of tariff concessions to the US, the Commission is to adjust the scope of these suspensions annually, according to the level of benefit elimination or impairment that the United States’ Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act caused to the EU. In recent years, according to statistical data, the benefit elimination level has fallen to almost zero. The collection of additional import duties would thus be virtually trade-neutral while unreasonably administratively demanding, therefore the rate of the additional customs duty was set by the 2024 regulation at zero percent.
The regulation introduces a new de minimis threshold of $30,000 below which the Commission does not need to adjust the scope of duty suspensions, as their impact is economically negligible. The threshold applies to the amounts related to anti-dumping and subsidy-offsetting customs duties paid on imports from the EU under the now repealed United States’ Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act.
The European authorities are taking this step to reduce the administrative burden and use the capacity more appropriately. The changes to the legislation entered into force upon publication in the Official Journal of the EU on 22 April 2025.