Subsidised Turkish glass manufacturers are “a direct source of injury to UK container glass manufacturers” and threaten the domestic suppliers that provide bottles and jars to Britain’s food and drink sector, documents lodged with a government trade regulator have claimed.
Papers submitted to a probe launched in March by the Trade Remedy Authority claim a “clear disparity” between the price charged to customers by UK glass producers and those supplied by Turkish businesses – which benefited from lower regulatory hurdles, cheaper Russian energy and labour costs, alongside government subsidies. However, Turkish authorities have warned any action to clamp down on its exports could damage wider trade with the UK.
Imports of glass from Turkey had risen sharply from “negligible” levels in 2019 to almost 12% of all UK container glass imports by 2025, the documents showed.
At the same time, the average import price of about £400/tonne was significantly lower than the price charged by UK producers, the papers claimed. This was a price British manufacturers said sat hundreds of pounds per tonne below the cost to manufacture glass domestically.
“If the applicant were to even totally eradicate their sales margin they would still not be able to come close to matching the sales price of the subsidised Turkish imports entering the UK container glass market, showing a clear disparity in competitiveness,” the documents, authored by UK glass sector representatives, claimed.
Glass containers imported from Turkey currently enter the UK at a zero customs duty rate, as long as they qualify as Turkish‑origin goods under the 2021 UK-Turkey Free Trade Agreement.
Were the ongoing TRA probe to find in favour of the UK glass sector, teh regulator could apply to the business & trade secretary to implement trade remedy duties on Turkish glass supplies.
But this scenario has provoked a strong response by the Turkish government, with papers lodged with the TRA stating the investigation was “deeply disappointing”, and warning the implementation of any countervailing anti-subsidy duties by the UK would “inevitably harm bilateral trade relations”.
A glass industry source told The Grocer “these documents show the stark threat UK and European glass manufacturers face”.
Firms were “playing by the rules, investing in jobs and sustainable energy. However, they now face unfair competition”, the source added.
British glass producers have also taken issue with a £100m UK export finance investment in a glass manufacturing facility in Belgium (owned by Turkey’s Ciner Group) earlier this year – as part of a move the government organisation said would facilitate a “large export contract for a British company”.
It was “vital this new site abides by the rules and does not flood the UK market, or worst still, threaten existing producers and jobs”, the industry source urged.
The TRA investigation follows mounting concerns over the impact of imported glass on UK suppliers, with The Grocer reporting in October that UK producers were also hampered by rising production costs and levies under the extended producer responsibility packaging tax.
These “unfair” market conditions “only encourage companies to look abroad to import cheaper, lower-quality glass, damaging British manufacturers and producing greater carbon emissions”, said UK supplier Encirc at the time.
The “uneven playing field” also applied to exports, it claimed, with higher production costs putting UK glass at a significant disadvantage.
Speaking after the TRA launched its probe in March, the regulator’s CEOs Jessica Blakely and Carmen Suarez said the investigation would “consider whether the UK glass industry is being harmed by unfair competition from imports and, if so, the measures to put in place to protect it”.
TRA investigations typically run for up to 12 months.
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