The palladium catalysed alkoxycarbonylation of trichloroethylene has been studied. Under standard conditions (with classical phosphine as ligand of Pd) no reaction takes place. On the other hand, we have shown that a simple procedure allows to convert trichloroethylene into its monoiodo analogue. The methoxycarbonylation of this last compound to give methyl dichloroacrylate is easily achieved using a simple catalyst precursor such as PdCl2(PPh3)(2). (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.