Brussels, 20/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 19 October, the day of the visit of China's President Xi Jinping to the UK, the European steel association Eurofer called on the EU not to grant China market economy status until China meets the necessary conditions - so that the EU might thus be defended against the “massive” dumping enjoyed by the Chinese steel industry.
The Chinese authorities state that they are making efforts to reduce the overcapacity of China's steel production (which stands at 340 million tonnes of steel, or a third of its installed production capacity) but this progress has been “unconvincing thus far”, says Eurofer, criticising the fact that unviable Chinese plants remain open, when European plants close due to “unsustainable price pressure”.
In the light of ongoing discussions as to whether the EU should grant China market economy status, Eurofer believes that Beijing does not yet meet the necessary technical economic criteria set out by the EU. Furthermore, the Chinese government does not dispute this, Eurofer adds. “Were market economy status to be granted, the EU would no longer be able to effectively defend against massively dumped Chinese steel. This dumping is a real threat to the survival of the European steel industry. The recent closures of plants in the UK have had price pressure from dumped Chinese steel as an underlying cause”, Eurofer underlines, saying that 80% of all ongoing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy trade cases are related to China, and a large portion of these are to do with Chinese steel.
“The EU must take a realistic, clear-headed approach to China, and should not jettison its core economic, social and environmental values”, Eurofer states. In favour of free and fair trade, “the European steel industry hopes that China will one day meet the necessary criteria to be granted market economy status, but believes a lot more work must be done to make this a reality”, Eurofer concludes. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)