Despite friction, economic ties with Europe improving
The European Parliament's recent amendment to its anti-dumping regulation is a replacement of the recently expired "analogue country method" and in disagreement with WTO rules, an official said.
The amendment, approved on June 20, replacing its "non-market economy" list with a "market distortion" principle, is using the analogue country method in a disguised way, Sun Jiwen, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), said at a regular press conference on Thursday.
"This amendment continues discrimination and injustice and doesn't follow WTO rules. China expresses great concern," Sun said.
The European Commission proposed an amendment to its anti-dumping regulation on November 9, stating that "undistorted" international prices and costs is an alternative if "significant distortions in an exporting country's products' prices and costs exist."
Section 15 of the accession protocol formulated by the WTO and China when the country joined the organization in 2001 states that if China cannot prove that market economy conditions prevail in the industry in question, a country investigating China can use a method of industry assessment that is not based on domestic prices and costs.
Investigating nations have chosen instead to use data from a country at a similar level of development as China, the so-called analogue country method.
The protocol states that the provision of the analogue country method expired 15 years after the date of China's accession, in 2016.
"The Chinese side will pay close attention to EU's law revision process and its consistency with WTO rules, and will urge the European side to carry out its responsibility in an all-round way to comply with WTO rules and properly handle China-European trade conflicts," he said.
On June 9, the European Commission announced that it would impose definitive countervailing duties of up to 35.9 percent on imports from China of certain hot-rolled flat steel (HRF) products, according to a statement on its website. It said that the HRF products are sold at low prices in the EU, provoking "a threat of imminent injury" for the EU producers.
Despite disputes, the China-EU trade and economic relationship is continuously improving, as the two sides hope to join hands to boost the globalization of free trade, He Weiwen, a senior fellow of the Center for China and Globalization, told the Global Times on Thursday.
The EU's revision of anti-dumping laws and imposing duties on steel imports from China is out of a need to protect its steel and metallurgic industries, according to He.
"What we should do is find out why the EU is imposing duties on steel from China and how we can solve the conflict via cooperation," he said.
