Ministry Of Commerce: EU Plans To Impose High Tariffs On Chinese Products

Enveloped in sovereignty debt Under the crisis cloud, Europe frequently raises the stick of trade protectionism.

On the 11th, the website of the Ministry of Commerce released an early warning message from the Italian Business Office of the Ministry of Commerce. Early warning quoted reports from local European media that the EU is preparing to fight against cheap goods from China through high tariffs.

"This move is not groundless. In the new strategic blueprint for global trade in the next five years released by the European Union last November, the competitiveness of trade was particularly emphasized, hoping to promote trade european union The country's economic growth will solve the problem of high unemployment. " This alert indicates.

According to an article by the Italian Business Office of the Ministry of Commerce, the European economy has been gradually pushed into the cold abyss by the European debt crisis this year, but the trade between China and Europe has grown rapidly. With the competitive advantage of labor costs, China has exported more and more goods, but the EU has also increasingly resisted this.

"Since this year, the EU has taken a series of actions to send a signal that its trade policy towards China is becoming more rigid, and under the pressure of debt, the EU is likely to rise a wave of trade protection." Bai Ming (blog) (microblog), a researcher from the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said in an interview.

An obvious sign is that the EU is trying to rely on trade to help its economy out of trouble. In November 2010, the European Commission issued a new trade strategy document called Trade, Growth and World Affairs. This document outlines the direction of the EU's trade policy in the next five years, and advocates taking a tougher strategy to open up for EU enterprises external Market.

Since then, a series of trade policy measures of the EU have implemented the principle of the new trade strategy document - opening the external market strongly and blocking the import of goods by various means.

In the middle of May this year, the European Commission announced the results of the first "double anti-dumping" (anti-dumping and countervailing) against China, ruling to impose 4% to 12% of the countervailing duty and 8% to 35.1% of the anti-dumping duty on Chinese coated paper enterprises. In addition, the EU recently announced that the anti-dumping duty on Chinese bicycles and bicycle parts will be extended for another five years and the tax rate will be increased to 48.5%.

According to the complaint of the EU glass fiber industry, the European Commission has issued a notice at the end of July this year, deciding to formally file a case against glass fiber fabrics originating in China and carry out an anti-dumping investigation. The products involved are woven or knitted fiber fabrics and knitted continuous glass fiber yarns. If dumping evidence is found, temporary anti-dumping duties will be imposed in March 2012.

The Ministry of Commerce also quoted a recent report from Der Spiegel, Germany, that EU member states have decided to increase the import tariff on wall and floor tiles imported from China from the middle of September, and this punitive tariff on Chinese wall and floor tiles for five years has reached 69.7%. Reuters reported that an EU diplomat said that the proposal was supported by trade officials of most EU member states.

The EU's recent series of tough trade measures with China have something to do with its current economic situation and the rapid recovery of China EU trade. Since this year, the "European pig countries" have been deeply involved in the sovereign debt crisis, and the EU's idea of saving the economy through trade has gradually become clear. "In the face of economic difficulties, the EU needs to redouble its efforts to ensure that economic growth and employment are promoted through trade in the coming years, and trade should play a key role in economic recovery," said European Commission Commissioner in charge of trade affairs Degut.

Although the European economy is facing enormous challenges, the trade between China and Europe is growing rapidly, which makes the tide of trade protectionism within the EU gradually turbulent. According to the statistics of the General Administration of Customs, from January to July this year exit The amount reached US $318.6 billion, up 17.8% year on year. The increase in China's exports puts pressure on the EU.

In addition, people from the Ministry of Commerce also pointed out that recently, the trade relationship between the EU and China has become more and more tense because the World Trade Organization agreed with China's ruling on EU import tariffs.

Bai Ming said that a series of trade protection actions of the EU are aimed at excluding other countries from their own markets, which is obviously "self interested", but in fact it is impossible to seek economic development in this way for a long time. For China, it can be predicted that it will be more and more difficult to enter the European market in the future. The EU's practice of raising tariffs will reduce China's export orders and increase export costs. As China's largest export market at present, the continued deterioration of the European trade environment will inevitably bring great pressure on China's exports.

Against this background, Bai Ming believes that, fundamentally speaking, China needs to resolve the layout of the global industrial chain. While upgrading its own industrial structure, it also needs to form a connection within the industrial chain with European industries, and deepen intra industry cooperation between them.

"The EU's strong trade policy will inevitably have a direct and indirect impact on me." Cheng Yongru, Director of the Fair Trade Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce, also told reporters, "We need to position China EU economic and trade relations in the global strategic interest pattern, and resolve the pain of supply chain change and value chain climb in the process of changing the economic development mode european union The reaction of industry and government will deepen professional cooperation and division of labor in future development. "

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