Foreign Trade Protection Measures Faced By Chinese Enterprises Are More Diverse And Complex.

In September 6, 2007, the European Commission issued a notice on the official communiqu of the European Union. According to the European Union's complaints from the industry, the European Commission had decided to conduct an anti circumvention investigation to avoid the phenomenon of p shipment of European leather shoes in Macao.

Since the date of the announcement, the European Union will register and conduct anti circumvention investigations on the imported footwear products imported from Macao. If it is found that there is a circumvention, it will impose anti-dumping duties on leather shoes imported from Macao. The tax rate is the same as the anti-dumping duty rate of the products involved in mainland China.

The period of anti circumvention investigation is 9 months.

The EU began to impose anti-dumping duties of 9.7% to 16.5% on leather shoes in October 2006 for a period of two years.

The anti circumvention investigation is likely to make my leather shoes worse for European exports. Once the EU decides to impose anti-dumping duties on leather shoes imported from Australia, the mainland's export leather shoes enterprises to Macao will surely be greatly affected.

This year, the EU has "zero case" against China for various reasons. However, when the anti-dumping duty on export leather shoes was terminated in China for a year, the EU's new restrictions on China's export of leather shoes had to be thought-provoking. This shows that the EU has never relaxed its import barriers to Chinese products, but has adopted more diversified forms.

It is a coincidence that over the past year, the trade barriers of China's products exports have been recorded. In 1-9, 8 cases of light industry handicraft products exported to China were investigated in foreign countries in the past 8 months, compared with the same period last year. However, the countries filing the case were more dispersed last year. Besides the European Union's anti-dumping investigations on Chinese ironing boards and Australia's safety glass, the rest are developing countries such as South Africa, Peru and Brazil. This year, they are mainly concentrated in the United States, and the form adopted by the United States is not limited to anti-dumping, but tends to be more diversified and complicated, and the harm to Chinese export enterprises is also greater.

In 1-9, the United States launched two surveys of 337 light industrial craft products and 2 anti subsidy and anti-dumping investigations. It is worth noting that countervailing and anti-dumping investigations have become a new measure to restrict the import of Chinese products since the end of last year.

In November 2006, the United States launched an anti-dumping investigation and countervailing investigation on my coated paper. This is the first time that the United States has used such a merger survey in China. In March 30th this year, it announced the preliminary ruling result of the countervailing investigation on coated paper products exported to China. It decided to apply the Countervailing Law to China, and began to impose a temporary countervailing duty on China's export of American coated paper products.

This is the first time that the United States has imposed countervailing duty on products imported from the "non market economy countries", which has changed the US trade policy for 23 years without countervailing laws.

After that, the United States launched four "two anti" merger investigations in China, of which 2 were light industrial handicrafts, including composite woven bags and steel clothes hangers.

In the three merger investigation cases involving light industry technology, I will promptly organize relevant enterprises to respond positively, and at the same time represent the industry to submit the industrial defense opinions to the US Department of Commerce, and express strong dissatisfaction with the unfair practices of the US in the "International Business Daily" and the chamber of commerce website.

But this year, the US side, despite strong opposition from the Chinese government and industry, announced in March this year that the US Countervailing Law applies to products imported from China, and decided to levy countervailing duties on Chinese coated paper. This is the first time that the United States has imposed countervailing duty on products imported from the "non market economy countries", which has changed the trade policy of the United States that has not persisted in 23 years for non market economy countries to implement countervailing laws.

While insisting that China should be regarded as a "non market economy country", on the one hand, it uses the data of the surrogate countries to calculate the dumping margin of Chinese products and levying anti-dumping duties. On the other hand, it accuses Chinese enterprises of various subsidies and levying countervailing duty, which constitutes a double discrimination against the "double taxation" of China's export products, which is obviously unfair.

Such merger investigation not only inevitably increases the cost and difficulty of responding to enterprises, but also challenges the current system of our government.

It can be seen from the above that with the steady development of China's economy and the continuous growth of exports, the trade remedy measures taken by European and American countries to our export products are more diversified and complicated.

To this end, our export enterprises should actively respond to the following aspects in order to safeguard their own interests:

1, understand rules and make rational use of them.

We should have a comprehensive understanding of the "game rules" of trade barriers such as anti-dumping, countervailing and anti circumvention in Europe and the United States, seriously study and make use of the applicable standards, pay attention to the reasonable arrangement of production and assembly procedures, and develop overseas markets at reasonable procedures and legal prices.

2. Collect information and prepare well.

According to the WTO "subsidy and countervailing agreement", subsidies should meet three conditions, that is, subsidies are provided by government or public institutions; the government provides financial support or any form of income or price support; subsidies enable enterprises or enterprises to gain benefits.

In addition, subsidies need to be specific, that is, subsidies should only be granted to some specific industries, enterprises or regions.

Subsidies are divided into prohibited subsidies, actionable subsidies and non actionable subsidies.

In the case of countervailing investigations, enterprises should first collect information about domestic subsidies and subsidies received by enterprises.

To understand this information, we can ascertain whether the subsidy accepted by enterprises is a actionable subsidy, so as to accurately answer suit and reduce losses.

3, argue actively and actively defend.

Enterprises can hire lawyers to make effective defense in all aspects.

Such plea can include both procedural and substantive aspects.

The best strategy for responding enterprises in countervailing investigations is to prove: (1) there is no subsidy; (2) subsidies are minor; or (3) subsidies are not actionable.

In the process of responding, enterprises can make full plea in the aspects of the nature of subsidies, the damage of domestic industries, the causal relationship between subsidies and damages, and many other aspects.

The success of any link defense will bring the final victory.

At the same time, enterprises can also join the importing countries, importers, wholesalers, retailers and end-users and other interest groups in the countervailing investigation, and jointly make a defense to strengthen their momentum.

Such a plea can constitute a real or potential pressure on the domestic industry and investigation agency of the importing country, or even affect the final verdict.

4, change ideas and enhance competitiveness.

Enterprises should change their concepts, change their competitive strategies of low price export, take the initiative to readjust the product mix, increase the technological content of products, implement differentiated strategies of export products, and enhance their competitiveness so as to effectively resist foreign trade protection measures.