Brussels prepares an anti-circumvention investigation into glass fibre mesh routed through the Western Balkans, as Chinese producers stand accused of dodging EU anti-dumping duties
BRUSSELS, Aug. 3, 2026
The European Commission is expected to open a formal anti-circumvention investigation into imports of construction materials from several Balkan countries, amid mounting suspicions that Chinese producers are using the region as a back door to dodge European Union anti-dumping duties, according to a July 30 report by Euronews citing people familiar with the matter.
The probe is set to focus on so-called open mesh fabrics of glass fibres, a woven reinforcement material used in thermal insulation systems, facade renders and a range of other building applications. There are growing suspicions, Euronews reported, that certain open mesh fabrics arriving from the Balkans are being made with low-cost Chinese glass fibre that has already been hit by EU anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties for unfair pricing and state support.
The Capitol Forum, a Washington-based investigative news service, reported the same day that the Commission is set to open the case against imports of Chinese open-mesh fabrics of glass fibres entering the EU through three Balkan countries and Moldova. The publication noted that the material is used across a range of industries, including construction and renewable energy, making it strategically important to parts of the European economy.
The Commission was contacted for comment by Euronews but did not reply. Even so, the contours of the expected case are already clear, and they follow a pattern that has become wearily familiar to EU trade defence practitioners: duties are imposed on a Chinese product, trade flows shift to a third country almost overnight, and investigators are sent chasing the cargo.
A Back Door Into the Single Market
According to the Euronews report, Chinese producers are suspected of circumventing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties by relying on local manufacturers in several Balkan countries to assemble open mesh fabrics using low-cost Chinese glass fibre. The finished fabrics then enter the EU as Balkan products, outside the scope of the duties that apply to the same goods when they ship directly from China.
Open mesh fabrics are often manufactured with Chinese glass fibre, which the Commission has accused Chinese producers of selling at unfairly low prices on the EU market, causing injury to European manufacturers. The EU has targeted glass fibre with additional duties several times in recent years, including duties on imports from Egypt that are produced there by Chinese companies.
That Egyptian precedent matters. It demonstrated that Chinese glass fibre groups are willing to build or use production platforms outside China specifically to serve the European market, and that Brussels is willing to follow the corporate ownership trail rather than stopping at the border stamp. The Balkans case, if opened, would extend that logic into Europe’s own neighbourhood.
Fifteen Years of Duties, and of Dodging
The product at the centre of the expected probe carries one of the longest circumvention rap sheets in EU trade defence history. The Commission opened its original anti-dumping investigation into Chinese open mesh fabrics of glass fibres in May 2010, following a complaint lodged on behalf of European producers including Saint-Gobain Vertex, Tolnatext, Valmieras Stikla Skiedra and Vitrulan Technical Textiles, according to case records compiled by Global Trade Alert.
Provisional duties followed in February 2011, and in August 2011 the EU imposed definitive anti-dumping duties ranging from 48.4 percent to 62.9 percent on the Chinese fabrics, the Global Trade Alert database shows.
The evasion began almost immediately. Following four separate anti-circumvention investigations, the duties were extended to imports consigned from Malaysia in July 2012, from Taiwan and Thailand in January 2013, and from India and Indonesia in December 2013, after the Commission concluded that the fabrics were being transshipped through, or minimally processed in, those countries to disguise their Chinese origin.
The measures have been maintained through successive expiry reviews since then, with the duties renewed most recently under a Commission implementing regulation published in early 2024. A Balkan case would open at least the fifth circumvention chapter for this single product family, a decade and a half after the original duties took effect.
How the Alleged Scheme Works
Anti-circumvention investigations are governed by Article 13 of the EU’s basic anti-dumping regulation. To extend duties, the Commission must establish a change in the pattern of trade between third countries and the EU that stems from a practice with insufficient due cause or economic justification other than the imposition of the duty, together with evidence that the remedial effects of the duty are being undermined and that dumping is still occurring relative to the values established in the original investigation.
Assembly operations are explicitly covered. Under the regulation, an assembly operation in a third country can constitute circumvention when, among other conditions, parts from the country subject to measures make up 60 percent or more of the total value of the parts of the assembled product, and the value added to those parts during the assembly operation is less than 25 percent of the manufacturing cost. In plain terms, weaving duty-hit Chinese fibre into mesh in a third country, with little genuine local transformation, is exactly the kind of operation the rule was written for.
The procedural weapons are significant. When it opens an anti-circumvention case, the Commission normally directs national customs authorities to register the targeted imports from the date of initiation. If circumvention is confirmed, which the Commission must decide within nine months, the extended duties can be collected retroactively on all registered imports. For importers, that turns the initiation notice itself into a live financial liability.
The Balkans case would also land amid broader alarm in Brussels about how openly circumvention is now being marketed. In a June investigation, Euronews found Chinese companies openly offering ways to sidestep EU trade defence measures, including establishing manufacturing facilities in countries not targeted by EU tariffs, making minor changes to products to alter their customs classification, and transshipping goods through gateway countries to create the impression they were produced there.
One Shenzhen logistics firm identified in that investigation, Xin Rui Da Logistics, advertises that it specialises in anti-dumping research and in providing transit trade solutions through third countries, saying on its website that it has solved trade barrier problems such as anti-dumping, countervailing and quota restrictions for many Chinese enterprises. The company lists re-export hubs including Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Hong Kong. It did not respond to Euronews’ request for an interview.
The European Anti-Fraud Office, known as OLAF, has taken over investigations into a number of circumvention cases, according to its 2025 annual report. In one case cited by Euronews, OLAF found that e-bikes routed through Indonesia were built mostly from Chinese components with only limited local processing, a scheme the office assessed could have avoided 7.2 million euros in EU import duties had the goods been exported to the European market.
The Overcapacity Backdrop
The expected probe arrives as the Commission steps up pressure on low-cost Chinese imports across the board. The EU’s trade deficit with China reached a record 359.9 billion euros in 2025, according to figures cited by Euronews, a gap now running at roughly 1 billion euros a day and one the Commission has described as not sustainable.
Glass fibre illustrates the imbalance. The EU produces around 1 million tonnes of melted glass annually from installations operating in eight countries, among them Germany, France and Italy, Euronews reported. Against that, Glass Fibre Europe, the association representing the glass fibre industry in Brussels, says Chinese glass fibre overcapacity exceeds 100 percent of total EU market demand.
In other words, China’s spare capacity alone could supply the entire European market more than once over. The association has warned that this raises the risk of further harm to European producers unless the EU strengthens its trade defence measures.
The political runway is short. At a summit in mid-June, EU leaders gave the Commission a mandate to review and update its trade defence instruments. The Commission launched negotiations with Beijing in June in a bid to rebalance trade ties, with hopes of securing tangible results by October, when EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič is expected to travel to China. At the same time, Brussels has warned that it will deploy its trade defence instruments before that deadline to counter low-cost Chinese imports if necessary.
The pipeline of cases is growing. Over the past year, the number of complaints alleging unfair Chinese trade practices across several industrial sectors has increased, and the Commission has been criticised for the length of its investigations. Additional safeguard measures, including tariffs and quotas, are also under consideration to protect the European chemicals sector from intense Chinese competition, Euronews has reported.
The limits of the current toolbox are part of the story. Under existing rules, the Commission can address unfair trade practices only on a product-by-product basis, a constraint that critics say leaves the EU perpetually one investigation behind exporters who can re-engineer supply chains in a matter of months. The Balkans mesh case will unfold, in effect, as a live demonstration of whether the product-by-product model can still deliver.
Reactions: Industry, Beijing and the Trade Bar
European industry has been pressing for exactly this kind of action. Beyond Glass Fibre Europe’s overcapacity warnings, five member states, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Lithuania, jointly alerted the Commission this year to what they called increasingly blurred and complex actions designed to avoid EU customs duties. In an informal proposal reported by Euronews, the five urged improvements to the EU’s anti-circumvention tool, which they said would allow the EU to guarantee the legal effect and the effectiveness of its existing trade defence measures.
Chinese industry representatives push back. Linlin Liang, spokesperson of the China Chamber of Commerce to the European Union, told Euronews the chamber was not aware of Chinese companies offering online solutions to get around EU tariffs, and said that, in general, circumvention risks are not unique to any single country. She added that the EU has a well-established anti-circumvention system and that what matters is that those instruments are applied in a transparent, evidence-based and proportionate manner.
“Regrettably, to date EU trade defence measures have largely targeted imports from China,” Liang said. Beijing, for its part, has repeatedly threatened the EU with retaliation if it tightens its trade defence rules.
Trade experts warn that enforcement can resemble a game the EU cannot easily win. Deborah Elms of the Hinrich Foundation in Singapore described the dynamic to Euronews as a whack-a-mole problem. “If you went after a particular firm for illegal transhipment, you’ll discover it’s a post office box address for a company that changes its name and moves to somewhere else very quickly,” she said. “If the tariffs are high enough, there is an incentive for companies always to try to skirt this through illegal means.”
Thomas Grjebine, an economist at the French Centre for Research and Expertise on the World Economy, told Euronews that the greater Chinese competition becomes, the harder policing gets. “We are not going to launch investigations into thousands of products, it’s complicated,” he said. “On top of that, investigations are conducted at the European level, whereas customs checks are carried out mainly at the national level.”
The Western Balkans Caught in the Middle
For the Western Balkan countries, the case is delicate. The region’s economies enjoy largely duty-free access to the EU market for industrial goods under Stabilisation and Association Agreements, and most are formal candidates for EU membership. Moldova, named by The Capitol Forum as a fourth conduit alongside three Balkan states, is likewise an EU accession candidate. That privileged access is precisely what makes the region attractive as a routing point for goods seeking to shed a Chinese label.
Neither Euronews nor The Capitol Forum identified the specific countries expected to be named, and no wrongdoing by any individual Balkan manufacturer has been established. Anti-circumvention cases target trade flows and practices; whether particular local producers are genuine manufacturers or minimal-processing waypoints is exactly what the investigation would set out to determine.
The stakes for the region go beyond one product. Chinese industrial investment in the Western Balkans has grown substantially over the past decade, and a finding that local production lines served mainly to launder the origin of Chinese goods would sharpen EU scrutiny of that investment at the very moment accession talks require candidate countries to align with EU trade and customs policy. Customs cooperation with Brussels, and the quality of origin controls at Balkan borders, would come under a harsher spotlight.
There is a safety valve. Under EU rules, genuine producers in targeted countries that can show they are not engaged in circumvention may request exemptions from any extended duties, and individual companies in third countries have obtained such exemptions in past open mesh fabric cases after verification. Balkan manufacturers with real looms, real workforces and real value added will therefore have a path to keep exporting duty-free, but they will carry the burden of proving it.
Economic Impact: Who Pays and Who Gains
If the Commission ultimately extends the existing measures, imports of open mesh fabrics consigned from the named countries would face the same anti-dumping duties that apply to Chinese-origin fabrics, duties that historically ranged from 48.4 percent to 62.9 percent, subject to the levels maintained in the most recent reviews. Registration means the bill could reach back to the date the case was opened.
For European glass fibre and technical textile producers, an extension would close a leak that has been undermining measures they spent years securing. The industry argues that every tonne of circumvented fabric transmits exactly the price injury the duties were designed to stop, depressing prices, eroding margins and weakening the investment case for keeping European furnaces running. With melting installations spread across eight member states, the employment and regional stakes are concrete.
For the construction sector, the calculus is different. Open mesh fabric is a modest cost component of external thermal insulation composite systems, but those systems sit at the heart of the EU’s building renovation agenda. Contractors and insulation system houses that shifted sourcing to Balkan suppliers after earlier rounds of duties may now face retroactive duty exposure, higher input prices, or a scramble to qualify compliant suppliers.
The timing is awkward for the buildings agenda. EU energy efficiency rules are driving a wave of facade renovation across the bloc, and insulation systems that use glass fibre mesh are among the workhorse technologies of that push. Any duty-driven increase in system costs, even a modest one, lands on a sector already squeezed by labour shortages and elevated financing costs.
For the Balkan economies involved, the immediate effect of an extension would likely be a sharp contraction in mesh exports to the EU, since the products would lose their duty advantage overnight. The longer-term cost could be reputational: heightened EU customs scrutiny of other product lines from the region, slower clearances, and a chilling effect on legitimate export-oriented investment, as investors price in the risk that EU trade defence follows them into the region.
And for China’s glass fibre industry, an extension would remove one more outlet for capacity that, by Glass Fibre Europe’s estimate, already exceeds total EU demand. Past behaviour suggests the flows would then shift again, to new conduit countries or to more sophisticated processing that adds just enough local value to survive scrutiny.
What Importers and Supply Chain Managers Should Do Now
For importers, the first practical consequence will be registration risk. EU customs authorities can be expected to register imports of the targeted fabrics from the day a notice of initiation appears in the Official Journal, and any duties later confirmed can attach to those registered entries. Companies buying mesh from the region should quantify their potential retroactive exposure now, before the notice lands, rather than after.
Second, origin due diligence. Under EU non-preferential origin rules, goods are considered to originate where they underwent their last substantial, economically justified processing. Simple assembly, repackaging or relabelling does not confer origin. Importers should obtain and verify bills of materials from Balkan suppliers, focusing on where the glass fibre yarn itself was made, since the fibre input is the heart of the Commission’s suspicion.
Third, contract protection. Trade counsel routinely advise importers to build duty and retroactivity clauses into purchase agreements, to allocate liability for origin misdeclarations to suppliers, and to secure audit rights over upstream inputs. Where investigators later establish false origin declarations, importers can face recovery of customs debt reaching back three years, along with penalties under national law.
Fourth, exporters in the region should prepare for verification. Genuine Balkan and Moldovan producers will want to document their manufacturing operations, energy and labour inputs, and value added, and to respond quickly and completely to Commission questionnaires. Cooperation and a well-supported exemption request can be the difference between keeping and losing EU market access.
Finally, the case is a reminder that EU trade defence exposure is no longer a China-only question. The list of countries touched by extensions of the open mesh fabric duties alone now spans three continents, from Southeast Asia to North Africa to, potentially, Europe’s own doorstep. Sourcing strategies that simply swap one low-cost origin for another, without tracing the inputs underneath, are increasingly likely to fail.
What Happens Next
The formal step to watch is a notice of initiation in the Official Journal of the European Union, which would name the countries and products covered, set deadlines for interested parties to come forward and request questionnaires, and almost certainly impose registration of imports. From initiation, the Commission has nine months to conclude the investigation and decide whether to extend the duties.
The timing is charged. An initiation in the coming weeks would fall just before Šefčovič’s expected October visit to China and the deadline EU leaders have set for tangible results in the trade negotiations launched in June. Brussels has signalled that it will not hold trade defence actions hostage to diplomacy; if anything, officials have suggested that new measures are intended to strengthen the EU’s negotiating hand.
It would also be an early test of the broader mandate EU leaders handed the Commission in June to modernise trade defence instruments that can currently address unfair practices only product by product. Five member states have already asked for a sharper anti-circumvention tool. A Balkans glass fibre case, geographically close, factually stark and legally well trodden, may be exactly the vehicle Brussels uses to show what enforcement of that agenda looks like.
For now, the Commission is keeping its counsel; it did not reply to Euronews’ request for comment. But for importers, Balkan producers and Chinese exporters alike, the message from Brussels is already legible: the era in which a short hop across a friendly border could wash away a duty of more than 60 percent is drawing to a close.