The European Commission is initiating a further investigation into Chinese plywood imports after further lobbying by European plywood manufacturers.
The latest action concerns possible circumvention of earlier anti-dumping measures imposed by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2333 on imports of Chinese hardwood plywood.
The alleged circumvention is by imports of slightly modified hardwood plywood – specifically using softwood or bamboo faces having a thickness of less than 2.5mm, or with both outer plies made of engineered veneer of mixed wood containing at least 50 % coniferous wood or bamboo veneers.
The request was lodged on 9 June 2026 by the Greenwood Consortium and the investigation was established in the Official Journal of the EU on July 23.
The Commission agrees that the Greenwood Consortium’s request contains sufficient evidence that the existing anti-dumping measures on imports of the product concerned are being circumvented by imports of the product under investigation.
It said evidence includes a change in the pattern of trade involving exports China to the EU following the imposition of the original measures on the product concerned.
The request also provides evidence that exports of the product concerned from China and targeted by the existing measures have been replaced to a large extent by exports of the product under investigation.
“This change appears to stem from a practice for which there is insufficient due cause or economic justification other than the imposition of the duty, namely the slight modification of the product concerned,” the Commission said.
Furthermore, the Commission says the evidence shows that because of the practices described above, the remedial effects of the existing anti-dumping measures on the product concerned are being undermined both in terms of quantity and/or prices.
“Significant volumes of imports of the product under investigation appear to have entered the EU market. In, addition, there is sufficient evidence that imports of the product under investigation are made at injurious prices.”
Interested parties are being invited to make representations on the investigation.
