The TRA found that these three companies were engaged in product dumping in the U.K. and were subject to a provisional tariff of almost 25%. All other producers and importers who did not engage with the initial stages of the inquiry are now subject to tariffs of almost 60%, despite there being no evidence that these other entities engaged in dumping.

“We are significantly affected by the new tariffs and are struggling to understand why such heavy tariffs have been imposed on all other lubricant exporters while the main party identified for dumping continues to benefit from the lowest rates,” Atif Naseem, director of Atlantic Grease & Lubricants FZE, based in Sharjah, UAE, told Lube Report.

Atlantic also said that the first it heard of the inquiry was the point at which the TRA published its findings.

Another small U.K. importer of UAE-origin lubricants who wished to remain anonymous told Lube Report that they were also unaware of the inquiry until after the findings were published in April.

“We didn’t hear anything about about the TRA until just about a month ago … when they implemented that duty. We never had any contact from them; no one gave us any kind of warning to say this is the problem. Everything came as a shock and it happened immediately,” the source said.

However, the TRA wrote in its report that it had contacted hundreds of companies “using contact details included in the application and found through open-source research.” The TRA had not responded to a request for comment by the time of publication.

UAE-based exporter Oscar Lubricants declined requests for comment, but said in its registration of interest filed on May 19 that, “We are paying for the wrong doings of other producers. Our prices are reasonable and are not considered as lower than our local selling price.”

Oscar Lubricants’ U.K. representative also declined several requests for comment.