The EU has slapped definitive anti-dumping duties on plastic imports from South Korea and Taiwan after finding they were undercutting European producers in a €1.4 billion market.

 

The anti-dumping duties imposed range from 5.2% to 7.5% for Korea and from 10.9% to 21.7% for Taiwan. The move follows an in-depth investigation which concluded that shipments of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) were entering the bloc at unfairly low prices, harming domestic manufacturers.

 

Provisional duties were already imposed at an earlier stage of the investigation, on 14 August 2025. The latest decision makes those measures permanent.

 

ABS is a plastic used in a wide variety of industry sectors and applications. For example, it is used in the automotive sector (in vehicle bumpers, or for decorative elements), in household appliances (such as washing machines, or dishwashers), in electronics (such as computer keyboards, mouses, remote controls, or phone cases), in furniture, in the construction sector (in pipes and tubes), in medical devices, and in toys (such as LEGO bricks).

 

The European Commission’s probe found that imports from Korea and Taiwan had rapidly expanded their foothold. In an EU market for ABS worth an estimated €1.4 billion, imports from Korea and Taiwan had achieved a market share of 31% by the period October 2023–September 2024, during which time the EU industry’s market share had fallen to 63% (down from 72% in 2020).

 

EU-based manufacturers — located in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain — employ around 920 people directly in ABS production.