Xinhua carried an article on August 4th that said “Faced with the worst economic crisis in decades, the European Union is losing ground to the growing temptation of protectionism. China one of its major trading partners is the main target. Last week saw a new wave of EU anti dumping measures against China. In two days, the 27 nation bloc made two separate decisions to impose definitive anti dumping duties on Chinese steel wire rods and seamless pipes. These measures are just part of a greater EU trade war against Chinese steel and iron products, which was launched two years ago.”

As we reported last week, the Chinese government filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization on anti dumping measures taken by the EU early this year against the import of Chinese iron or steel fasteners. This was the first time that China resorted to the Geneva based global trade body in a dispute with the EU.

Mr Duncan Freeman a researcher at the Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies said this rare move suggested Beijing was growing frustrated with the repeated use of anti dumping measures against Chinese products by the EU and was beginning to use international trade rules to protect its own interests

He said that "It is not only Chinese officials who criticized the EU for abusing anti-dumping actions. There are a lot of people within the EU who also believe the same thing. There are European industries exploiting the system to defend their interests."
According to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, over the past 30 years the EU has carried out more than 140 anti dumping investigations against Chinese products making it one of the most frequent users of anti dumping measures against China.

This is still the case this year.

In H1 the EU launched two anti dumping investigations both of which were targeted at China. Over the same period, the EU also made three decisions to impose provisional anti dumping duties on Chinese products including wire rods, aluminum foil and seamless iron or steel pipes. In addition, all three definite anti dumping measures imposed by the EU in the H1 of this year were directed against China. The measures concerned fasteners, PSC wires and candles.

Anti dumping duties of up to 50% on Chinese-made candles came less than one week after the G20 summit in London.