EU wins backing for tariffs on Chinese products

The European Union is set to launch extensive trade barriers on bicycles and ceramic tiles from China, which are the latest defensive measures designed to protect EU producers.

Plans by the EU Commission to launch five-year punitive import duties worth up to 69.7 percent on the bloc’s €275m imports of Chinese bathroom, kitchen and paving tiles received majority backing from trade diplomats from EU states, diplomats said. The duties aim to counteract what the EU says is illegal Chinese export pricing that hurts the profit margins of EU producers. They must come into effect by the middle of this summer.

Chinese bicycle and bicycle part exporters also face an extension until 2016 of existing anti-dumping duties worth up to 48.5 percent, after a Commission plan won approval from a majority of EU states. The duty extension, which begun in October, is likely to ruffle feathers in China, particularly since an extension had originally been planned to last only three years until 2014.

EU-Chinese trade relations have recently been strained by a World Trade Organisation ruling that gives China fresh power to challenge EU tariffs on goods Europe says are being dumped on its market. A separate WTO ruling against Chinese export curbs is likely to be appealed by Beijing.

European bicycle producers based largely in Germany and Italy made the case that their business was under sufficient threat from unfair Chinese competition to warrant a five-year extension.China exported nearly 700,000 bicycles and had total bicycle-related exports to the EU worth €430m in 2009.