EU leaders keen on stronger steps to check China’s unfair trade practices

New Delhi, June 19 (IANS) EU leaders have asked the European Commission to come up with stronger measures to deal with China’s growing economic might that comes at the cost of dumping cheap goods in other countries, according to a report in Politico.

The report cites an EU official as saying that leaders requested the Commission assess the EU’s trade defense tool-box and eventually come up with new instruments, to ensure the bloc has what it needs to defend its interests against China’s unfair trade practices.

Officials and diplomats, who were briefed on the summit discussion and were granted anonymity to speak about the confidential meeting, said the consensus was growing around the table to strengthen the EU’s trade defences and develop new instruments to protect markets, according to the report.

China has excess production capacity for manufacturing various goods such as cars due to the lack of adequate domestic demand and therefore has to take recourse to dumping these goods in foreign markets. It’s selling those products into the European market at low prices that European producers can’t compete with and that’s driving them out of business, the report observes.

Leaders want the Commission to keep engaging with Beijing. Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao is coming to Brussels at the end of June for a meeting with EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič.

“Everyone believes we need measures to reduce our dependence,” Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever told Politico after the summit concluded. “And the subsidies provided in China—that’s not fair. We need a response to that. The Commission intends to propose measures, and we’ll continue to discuss this.”

The report highlights that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tried to find out from EU leaders how far they were ready to accept Chinese retaliation, as the bloc grapples with how to shield Europe’s factories from China’s cheaper high-end goods.

There will be a “short term analysis of existing tools and how to be used in a more efficient way,” a second official said, stressing that developing new tools would take time to deliver and then get through the legislative process, the report added.

–IANS

sps/pk