REGULATION
Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) investigation into product dumping
David Wright, Director General, UKLA
The UK Government’s Secretary of State for Business & Trade has announced anti-dumping measures on certain engine oils and hydraulic fluids imported from Lithuania and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The decision follows a detailed investigation that the TRA initiated in response to an application from UK manufacturer Aztec Oils Ltd.
In June 2024, the Trade Remedies Authority (TRA), a non-departmental public body sponsored by the UK Government Department for Business & Trade (DBT), announced the launch of an investigation into alleged product dumping onto the UK market of certain engine oils and hydraulic fluids from Lithuania in Europe and also from the United Arab Emirates.
The TRA is the UK’s independent body responsible for investigating whether trade remedies are needed to counter unfair import practices. Anti-dumping duties are applied when a foreign producer exports goods at prices below their normal value, causing harm to domestic industry.
The period of investigation was 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. The TRA examined the period from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2024 to assess injury on domestic producers.
This announcement of the investigation followed a geometric increase in imports of these products from those countries over the previous five years at a time when the UK market was mature, demand was flat and volumes had even slightly declined compared with pre-COVID levels.
The investigation included interviews with major companies involved in the UK lubricant sector as well as the gathering of financial, market, product, and
54 LUBE MAGAZINE NO.191 FEBRUARY 2026
volume data in order to ascertain whether there had been a significant and lasting impact on the domestic producers in the UK.
Product dumping involves products being sold at prices below those of domestic producers and indeed at prices below the raw material cost on the UK market but there was also a concern that the price of these products fell below that which the exporting countries’ companies would sell the same product for on their home markets of Lithuania and the United Arab Emirates.
Part of the investigation of the TRA involved a data gathering exercise of domestic producers highlighting the decline in margins and product volumes they experienced over the previous five years, and part of the investigation involved an assessment of the economic damage on the entire UK lubricant industry that dumped products would have not only over the short term but also the long term in constricting the sector’s ability to attract and retain significant talent to support its future aims and ambitions. For example, in the automotive transition to electric vehicles if there was a lack of sufficient finance available in order to secure outstanding candidates.
There was also a concern that product dumping would have an impact on the future research and development effort of the sector and this would curtail innovation in product and service delivery.
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