EDANA warns of consequences of misclassification of PET spunbond imports
EDANA would like to remind its members and industry stakeholders of the legal requirement to comply with the EU rules on customs classification when importing non-wovens from third countries outside the EU. In this regard, it was recently discovered that there appears to be a high level of customs misclassification occurring in the nonwoven’s industry. This could have dangerous and costly consequences for importers.
Following repeated requests by its members, EDANA worked closely with the European Union and the World Customs Organisation to introduce in 2024 specific customs codes CN code 5603 14 20 and 5603 9420 in order to better monitor imports of certain PET spunbond and staple fibre products. Based on market intelligence, EDANA knows that third country imports of the respective products were in the range of 15,000 to 30,000 MT in 2024 and 2025. However, actual import volumes recorded under the specifically created CN codes were significantly lower.
“There is a clear mismatch between import volumes observed in the market and what is reported under the correct customs codes. Often, importers continue to use outdated customs codes as a matter of habit not paying due attention to changes of the Combined Nomenclature”, says Jacques Prigneaux from EDANA. “However, this is problematic, especially where certain products are subject to investigations by the EU authorities.”
EDANA has therefore actively commenced an outreach initiative to raise awareness among its members. They have also contacted the European Commission and the national customs authorities of the EU member states to ask the authorities to enhance import checks.
Incorrect customs classification not only makes EDANA’s work more difficult to monitor import flows and protect the interests of its members. It can also have severe negative legal consequences for importers. Customs authorities penalize misclassifications with additional duties, administrative fines and even criminal penalties. “To avoid such unpleasant surprises, we recommend that all members and their supply chain regularly review and update their customs classification databases and also instruct their customs agents accordingly” adds Mr Prigneaux.
Awareness and compliance are in particular important where imports are under enhanced customs control (such as in the framework of import registration during an anti-dumping investigation) or subject to special trade or regulatory regimes (such as duty-free or reduced duty imports from countries with which the EU has special trade arrangements).
A list of preferential trade regimes can be found on the website of the European Commission (here) and the Access2Markets webpage contains product-specific information for imports of goods into the EU (here). Also, presently, certain PET spunbond from China is subject to an EU anti-dumping investigation and imports were made subject to registration in December 2025 (see here for further information). The exact definition of the product subject to the investigation is: ‘non-woven needle-punched sheets of polyester filaments, whether or not reinforced by glass fibres, weighing more than 70 g/m², of a thickness exceeding 0.5 mm but not exceeding 1.8 mm, impregnated with one or more binders, containing less than 30% of glass fibres by weight, not coated or covered’. All imports of these products must be classified under TARIC code 5603 1390 70, CN code 5603 14 20 or TARIC code 5603 1480 70.
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