EU's many aggressive trade initiatives targeting China
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Experts interviewed by the reporter pointed out that if the European Commission adopted the proposal to impose countervailing duties, it would not only be a blow to China's steel companies, but also affect downstream enterprises that use steel as raw materials, including home appliances and automobiles. What is more noteworthy is that many EU aggressive trade measures have pointed to China in the near future, which will add pressure to China-EU economic and trade relations in 2013, and must be wary of further escalating trade frictions into trade wars.
Difficulties in launching tough trade initiatives against China
In response to the latest progress of the European Commission's "double-reverse" investigation on organic coated steel sheets in China, the Ministry of Commerce spokesman Shen Danyang publicly responded at a regular meeting on the 16th that "the Chinese side has submitted written defense opinions to the European side. It also strongly urges the EU to strictly abide by the WTO rules, respect the facts and evidence, revoke the unreasonable rulings, and terminate the investigation. We will closely follow the progress of the case and retain the rights under the WTO legal framework."
Just the day before, the Financial Times disclosed a report from the European Commission, which accused the Chinese government of supporting its organic coated steel producers to obtain raw materials below market prices and also identified Chinese coatings. Steel producers benefit from Other government subsidies in terms of land use, water use and loans. The report recommends that up to 50% of countervailing duties be imposed to combat imports of Chinese coated steel sheets.
This report will provide a basis for action for the subsequent sanctions of the European Commission. The European Commission will present this report to EU member states this month, and must decide whether to take formal action on Chinese imports.
"If the European Commission adopts the proposal to report the countervailing duty, it will not only be a blow to China's steel companies, but also affect other downstream enterprises that use steel as raw materials, including home appliances and automobiles." China University of International Business and Economics China WTO Research Tu Xinquan, deputy director of the hospital, told the Economic Information Daily reporter.
In 2013, the EU continued the tough style of trade with China last year, and many new aggressive trade initiatives were directed to China.
Recently, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union have revised the rules of the EU Anti-Dumping Basic Law on the investigation of market economy treatment. Insiders pointed out that the revised rules have greatly reduced the chances of Chinese companies gaining "market economy status", which is a major retrogression in the EU's anti-dumping market economy treatment policy. The ongoing EU anti-dumping case against China's PV may also be affected.
The EU also protested with the United States' WTO approach to the Chinese government's restrictions on the export of other raw materials, and is investigating the launch of telecommunications equipment involving Huawei and ZTE. In addition, the EU has gradually increased the import threshold for many fields such as automobiles, chemicals, toys and clothing, which has brought great competitive pressure on the development of related industries in China.
"In the past two years, the EU's tough trade policy toward China has shown an increase in intensity, scale, and the number of sensitive issues involved. The EU's series of actions have put pressure on China-EU economic and trade relations," an industry source said.
Rooted in "re-industrialization" into a trade protection pretext
"The reason why the EU has intensively attacked China's exports is fundamentally to protect its own industry and smoothly promote its re-industrialization strategy." Bai Ming, a researcher at the Ministry of Commerce, told the Economic Information Daily.
In October 2012, the European Commission issued a new industrial policy briefing, officially proposed to reverse the decline in the proportion of industry through the “new industrial revolutionâ€. By 2020, the industrial added value will increase from the current 15.6% to the GDP. 20% of the overall goal of “re-industrializationâ€.
Bai Ming analysis pointed out that the European economy has not yet emerged from the debt crisis, and if the premature crisis of the European debt crisis is mainly the fiscal and monetary policy issue, then in the later period, the endogenous power of the real economy and the employment development through the revitalization of the manufacturing industry will become A more prominent problem to be solved. In this context, the EU seeks a new development path, promotes its "re-industrialization" strategy in a high-profile manner, and turns its trade policy objectives into a "re-industrialization" strategy. "Trade liberalization" is naturally "locked into the cabinet."
"In recent years, China, which is developing rapidly in some competitive industries, is regarded as an opponent that threatens the competitiveness of the EU industry and has become the target of EU trade policy," Bai Ming said.
Taking the steel industry as an example, it is understood that the EU is the second largest steel production market in the world after China. The steel industry accounts for about 1.5% of the EU's GDP. The steel industry in 23 of the 27 member states occupies important industries. status.
In 2012, steel demand fell, and overcapacity became increasingly prominent. According to the statistics of the European Iron and Steel Federation, the annual production capacity of EU steel is about 210 million tons, while the actual demand is only 150 million tons to 160 million tons, and the overcapacity is 25%. The performance of the EU steel giants has declined significantly. Since last year, the European Steel Union has complained to the EU several times that it is against the Chinese government's subsidies to promote the surge in steel products imported from China from the European market. This is unfair.
The position of the automotive industry in the EU economy is also important. In recent years, with the European debt crisis causing the European economy to continue to slump, the European auto market has shrunk severely, and the auto manufacturing industry is in trouble. The European industry believes that the competitive pressure from China is very high.
On January 4, 2013, the European Commission announced that the regulations for the implementation of “Euro 6†emission standards for some vehicles have come into effect from December 31, 2012. The EU's previous relevant emission standards were issued in the form of directives, requiring member states to convert their content into domestic legislation. The "Euro 6" emission standard is directly issued in the form of a decree, and all EU member states must implement it from the date of the entry into force of the "Euro 6" emission standard.
Industry analysts pointed out that this new standard is not only an important measure for the EU to “re-industrialize†under the debt crisis, but also will bring great competitive pressure on the development of China's auto industry.
The trend will still revolve around the "subsidy"
On the friction of Sino-European trade, EU Ambassador to China Aide and a press conference on the 16th said that China-EU trade is the world's largest trade, of course there will be some friction points, but "some people say it is trade." War, 'I don't accept this statement.'
According to the latest data from China Customs, in 2012, the EU continued to maintain its position as China's largest trading partner and the largest source of imports, while the status of the EU's largest export market was replaced by the United States.
However, looking forward to this year's China-EU economic and trade situation, most experts expressed that they are not optimistic and believe that the overall situation will remain tight. Especially in 2013 under the background of quantitative easing, the risks of exchange rate wars and trade wars may be further aggravated.
Tu Xinquan told reporters that Europe's adjustment of industrial structure and the realization of "re-industrialization" is a long-term process. Coupled with the fact that trade protection behaviors often have "inertia", comprehensive consideration will still be full of friction between China and Europe this year.
Experts also pointed out that this year's "subsidy" issue will be the focus of trade disputes between China and the EU.
In fact, in 2011, the EU began to frequently issue “subsidies†to China, and it has recently strengthened. In May 2011, the European Commission decided to impose high anti-dumping and countervailing duties on coated paper originating in China. This is the first time the EU has waved a “counter-subsidy†stick to trade sanctions against China. In early 2011, the European Commission and Europe's largest corporate lobby group, BusinessEurope, began to take the lead in investigating China's export credit policy. Subsequently, the EU's collection of evidence of subsidies from local governments in China began to intensively begin.
In May 2012, the European Union revised the trade defense system and planned to bypass the industry application to legalize the content of its own investigation. This controversial content paved the way for the EU to strengthen trade sanctions. At present, the European Commission is trying to investigate the Chinese wireless communication equipment as the first "test" of this privilege.
Song Wei, director of the International Trade Research Office of the Institute of World Economics and Politics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Economic Information Daily that some Western countries believe that the development competitiveness of Chinese companies comes from government subsidies. This is a prejudice. As long as there is a domestic dilemma, it is their habit to stare at China. In fact, many so-called “subsidies†are historical results of the Chinese economy in the process of development, and are not subjective subsidies for illegal violations.