The Trade Remedies Authority’s (TRA) duty on excavators from China was put in place to combat suspected dumping activities regarding many of the machines
The Chinese excavator tariff, ranging from 18.81 to 40.08%, was put in place in May 2025, and applies to certain excavators imported after allegations that they were being dumped on the UK market.
Now, a Chinese lawyer acting on behalf of LiuGong Machinery UK has said that the tariff is inconsistent with net zero policies, due to being applied to electric excavators as well.
Challenges have already been made to the tariff
In December last year, following challenges to the tariff by the LiuGong Group and the Caterpillar Group, the TRA decided to maintain the decision. The two groups argued that the tariff should not apply to battery-powered machines.
The decision came after an investigation launched by JCB in 2023 claimed that Chinese exporters were dumping excavators into the UK market, due to being able to price their products lower than UK competitors with lower production costs, artificially lowering the cost-base and creating an advantage over the UK competition.
The tariffs affect self-propelled, tracked excavators between 11-80 tonnes.
There is no UK industry producing excavators over this weight, and so importing does not damage a UK economy or industry.
LiuGong continue to pursue the point
The Chinese company’s lawyer has appealed to the Upper Tribunal over including certain battery-powered excavators in the tariff, and argues that these are distinct from the more common diesel-powered machines, and so should be treated differently.
Furthermore, battery-powered machines were not being imported into the country during the period that the TRA investigated and so could not be part of any dumping.
As the UK increases utilisation of electric machinery in the construction sector, any decision made from the appeal could be significant, and could impact both the Chinese and UK market and economy.
Layla Barke-Jones, dispute resolution partner at Aaron & Partners, said: “This appeal raises an important and very practical question – how should the UK’s existing trade rules apply to new, low-carbon technology and what practical measures should apply to ensure the purpose of trade tariffs are best served?
“Electric excavators are fundamentally different from traditional diesel machines. They are part of the construction sector’s transition to cleaner infrastructure and lower emissions. The issue now is whether it’s right to treat them exactly the same as conventional machinery for anti-dumping purposes, despite those differences.”
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