By GB News (World News) | Created at 2026-10-07 18:11:09 | Updated at 2026-10-07 21:57:37
3 hours ago
Tariffs on Chinese imports of a vital paint-whitening chemical would safeguard jobs in a "key UK industry", the trade watchdog has said.
The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) said that China had been "dumping" rutile titanium dioxide, a white pigment used in paints, paper and plastics.
This posed a "real and immediate threat" to UK industry, it said, and recommended trade tariffs of up to 64 per cent be imposed.
But others warned that the impact of tariffs would mean higher prices for downstream businesses, as well as consumers.
"Tariff wars very rarely have winners", one insider commented.
The TRA investigation revealed that Chinese imports of the chemical had "increased significantly", approximately trebling between May 2025 and May this year.
"This trend would be likely to continue if a trade remedy measure were not imposed," it said.
The TRA said that China had increased its production capacity. Meanwhile, the EU, India, Brazil and Saudi Arabia had all imposed measures to protect their domestic markets.
Xi Jinping is the President of China
This left the UK particularly vulnerable to "dumped" imports - those sold overseas below their normal value.
TRA Chief Executives, Jessica Blakely and Carmen Suarez, said: “Our investigation has found that the UK’s titanium dioxide production industry faces a real and immediate threat from dumped imports from China.
"The measure that we have proposed today will help to protect this key UK industry that employs over 570 people, contributes millions to the country’s economy and supplies hundreds of downstream UK businesses.”
The TRA will take feedback on its initial findings before making a final recommendation to Government.
Business leaders said that, while it was important to protect the chemical sector, the net result was likely to be rising prices.
Tom Bowtell, CEO of the British Coatings Federation, which represents sectors including decorative paints, printer inks and wallpaper, said manufacturers were already struggling with high energy and labour costs.
He said: “We recognise the need to protect domestic chemical manufacturing.
However, imposing tariffs will have a significant impact on downstream formulators of products like coatings, paints and inks, and all the companies and consumers that use them."
Mr Bowtell said that the TRA's own modelled scenarios showed that downstream costs outweighed the benefit to producers by millions of pounds.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is fearful of Chinese 'overproduction' of chemicals
"The cumulative impact of this approach will hinder the Government’s drive for growth and job creation," he said.
Industry experts have previously warned that an expanding Chinese capacity was flooding export markets.
In July, billionaire industrialist Sir Jim Ratcliffe wrote to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to highlight what he claimed was "deliberate" Chinese overproduction of chemicals.
The part-owner of Manchester United warned that the bloc was moving at a "snail's pace" in dealing with the issue.
In an open letter, he wrote: "China is overbuilding its entire chemical industry, which it fully recognises is a critical ingredient for its national security.
“This intentional excess capacity (which is considerable) is being ‘dumped’ into our European marketplace at unsustainable prices. “The result is an accelerating rate of closure of our chemical industry.”
Sir Jim said that China did not have “superior economics” for manufacturing chemicals and warned: “It is very clear that when our industry has shut down, prices will rise rapidly and consumers will suffer."
