South Africa ITAC sunset-review increase of anti-dumping duty on PET from China to 43.77%

Severity basis

Anchored on the measured tariff-rate change: the anti-dumping duty on Chinese-origin PET rose from 28.89% to 43.77% (item 207.01/3907.6/03.05), a discrete, quantified rate published by SARS.

Mechanism

Safripol, the SACU industry's PET producer, applied for a sunset review of the existing anti-dumping duty on Chinese PET. ITAC's Report No. 770 found that Chinese imports rose 186.08% between 2022 and 2023, with a 25.96% increase over the full period of investigation, and concluded the domestic industry continued to suffer material injury from dumped imports even with the duty in place. ITAC recommended raising the duty rather than letting it lapse; SARS implemented the increase from 28.89% to 43.77% via a Customs and Excise Act tariff amendment, effective 12 June 2026.

No prior PET or polyethylene-terephthalate action existed in the register despite ITAC being a well-represented South African trade-remedy authority for other product lines (float glass, flat-rolled and structural steel, transformer cores, washing machines).

Downstream implications

• Raises the landed cost of Chinese-origin PET resin in the SACU market

by a further ~15 percentage points, protecting Safripol's domestic production.

• Chinese PET exporters face a steeper tariff wall into South Africa

for the duration of this renewed order term.

Open questions

• The exact Government Gazette notice number and date were not located

in the sources checked (SARS's own tariff-amendments page states "publication details will be made available later"); the 11-12 June 2026 dates are drawn from SARS's item-level effective-date listing and press coverage, not a gazette number.