Brussels, 13/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - After an initial debate in the college of commissioners on Wednesday 13 January, the European Commission decided to return, in the second half of this year, to the extremely sensitive issue of granting China market economy status. This is to leave time for examining the issue from every angle with all the stakeholders.
“We had a discussion on the issue. We will return to it later because the president [Jean-Claude Juncker] concluded very clearly that this question needs to be examined from all angles that are important, given the importance of this issue for international trade and for the EU economy”, said European Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans, reporting to the press on the latest session of the weekly commissioners' meeting.
“The issue will be coming back to the table somewhere in the second part of this year, I would assume, but I am just assuming. We haven't taken a formal decision on that”, Timmermans said. “If there are measures to be taken related to this issue, then of course these individual measures will have to be assessed for impact. Those are the rules, but I can't say as yet which measures these could be. But we will certainly be looking at those possibilities”, he continued when questioned about the possibility of an impact assessment for the EU economy on granting China market economy status.
“The discussion covered all implications surrounding this issue - in particular, the potential impact on jobs in Europe. No decision has been taken yet, and the Commission will continue developing the options for the way forward on this matter”, a Commission source stated.
Strong reservations from the European Parliament's S&D Group. The outlook of the EU granting China market economy status is causing an outcry from industry (see EUROPE 11466) and also at the European Parliament, where the Socialists and Democrats Group (S&D) is voicing its strong reservations.
“The S&D Group is convinced that automatically granting market economy status to China would be premature. Given the current economic situation worldwide, we call on the European Commission to proceed with a full and formal impact assessment before taking any decision in this regard”, said S&D Group leader Gianni Pittella (Italy) on Tuesday 12 January. “There are many European industries, especially in the steel, ceramics, solar and textiles sectors that could be dramatically hit by Chinese social, environmental and fiscal dumping”, he warned, calling for a reform to be launched of the EU's trade defence instruments.
Pittella's French Socialist colleagues, Emmanuel Maurel and Edouard Martin, who together with their Italian colleague David Borrelli (EFDD) organised a conference on this issue on Tuesday 12 January, called on the EU to “stop being naïve when it comes to international trade” and to “defend European workers against all kinds of dumping”. “As the experts and MEPs made very clear during the conference, China doesn't meet the market economy criteria. Therefore it shouldn't be granted market economy status - either automatically or unilaterally”, Maurel concluded. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)