The Chinese government allowed a landmark World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute - aimed at forcing the European Union to recognise it as a market economy in trade investigations - to lapse on Monday.

The case was initially brought in 2016 and China lost an interim ruling on the matter last year.

By ending the dispute, China now provides the EU with greater legal certainty to combat low-price Chinese exports with artificially high tariffs.

The resolution is a major setback for China as the EU steps up efforts to limit its expansionist practices into the continent.

On the same day that China allowed the dispute to lapse, the EU announced an unprecedented attempt to block Beijing's subsidies to exporters. The 27-nation bloc will also unveil a proposal this week to protect European companies from Chinese takeovers.

The EU, Chinese and US missions to the WTO  did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The move also bodes well for the United States, which is engaged in a near-identical Chinese dispute that US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer previously called the WTO's "most serious litigation".

China decided to drop the matter after the WTO, in an interim ruling, rejected the argument that Beijing's 2001 agreement to join the WTO automatically granted it the right to be treated as a market economy in anti-dumping investigations after 15 years.

The ruling, which has still not been made public, said the EU could continue to impose higher duties on under-priced - or "dumped" - Chinese imports on a case-by-case basis, according to sources familiar with the case.

The US and EU do not consider Chinese prices reliable, and for decades they have calculated Chinese anti-dumping duties in ways that disregard Chinese costs and prices in favour of data from third countries that adhere to free market forces.

That has allowed them to add extra duties to Chinese imports that help keep their domestic producers competitive.

Beijing filed the dispute in 2016 and argued that the legal basis that permitted the EU to deviate from standard WTO anti-dumping practices expired in 2016 - the 15th anniversary of China's accession to the WTO.

China temporarily suspended the dispute after the WTO issued its interim report last year, which prevented the ruling from going public. Beijing declined to restart the dispute before the deadline expired on Monday.