European manufacturers demand protection from Chinese exports

Representatives of the metals industry, trade unions and the European Parliament sent a letter to Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, on the need for legislative negotiations with China.

In the letter, they expressed their satisfaction with the decision of the European Commission to refrain from granting China the status of a market economy country (MES) and proposed a new custom methodology, which, in their opinion, “should be based on the assumptions of Article 15 of the Protocol on China's Accession to the WTO and must remain in effect after December 2016 ”.

They believe that “the status of China's market economy and the modernization of trade defense instruments are two separate issues that should work in parallel. If the proposed “new methodology” does not effectively protect EU producers against China's export dumping, trade defense instruments will need to be used, even if the intention is to strengthen them. ”

The letter also contained proposals for new legislative proposals. According to the authors, “a clear connection between the new user methodology and the criteria of a market economy” should be considered. The new methodology should be implemented evenly across all industries and manufacturers affected by the dumping of Chinese cheap products.