Brussels, 14/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - Karel De Gucht plans to call for the support of his peers at the Commission in order to launch an investigation into the unfair trading practices of the Chinese telecom operators Huawei and ZTE, despite fears of Chinese reprisals against European operators.
In the wake of retaliatory measures against Chinese solar panels, the Commission keeps to a tough line against Beijing. According to The Wall Street Journal, Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht plans to call, on Wednesday 14 May, for the support of his colleagues at the Commission to launch an investigation against the unfair trading practices of the Chinese telecom operators Huawei and ZTE, suspected by his services of benefiting from public support in the form of preferential rate credits.
This action comes at a sensitive time for European operators - Swedish Ericsson, Finnish Nokia Siemens and French Alcatel-Lucent - that want to increase their activity in China by winning contracts with Chinese telecom operators that invest in the deployment of new generation telecom networks in that country. None of them have therefore complained to the European executive as they fear reprisals against them. (EH/transl.jl)