On Thursday 9 March, Aegis Europe, the flag-bearer of some 30 industrial federations, warned of the massive imbalance in trade between the EU and China, with the deficit (€175 million at the end of 2016) continuing for the 28 EU member states. It therefore called on the EU to take forceful measures to remedy this.
"The 2016 EU trade deficit with China is almost on par with the record high of 2015 which equates to around 7 million containers that arrive fully loaded in Europe and go back to China empty", Aegis Europe states, adding that the EU’s trade deficit with China has increased by nearly 240% since 2001.
"European policy makers should be alarmed that the European economy is relying on artificially cheap Chinese imports while its own domestic manufacturing is eroding (...) Europe is losing substantial parts of its manufacturing value chain without establishing new value chains to replace them”, Aegis Europe states angrily. The association slams the loss of jobs every day in Europe which have fallen victim to a strategy financed by the Chinese state that is based on strategic dumping, intellectual property theft and cyber hacking.
Given the EU's enormous trade deficit with China (which is underestimated in size due to massive customs fraud by Chinese exporters that has been uncovered by the EU's anti-fraud office OLAF), Aegis-Europe urges the Council and European Parliament "to examine carefully" the impact the current proposal for a new methodology for anti-dumping measures could have on jobs across the board in European manufacturing sectors. (The new methodology for anti-dumping measures is to settle the issue of how to treat China in the EU's anti-dumping investigations when the arrangements on this in China's WTO accession protocol expire).
"The proposed methodology would create new burdens and make it difficult for the EU to impose effective measures. It would also weaken the basis for defending trade defence measures at the WTO level", Aegis Europe warns, calling for "responsible" action on this issue.
Aegis Europe also warns about the Chinese government's plan, highlighted in a new report from the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, which aims at a dramatic increase in domestically-made (Chinese) products in 10 sectors which the Chinese government hopes will accelerate an industrial upgrade as economic growth slows. This growth will lead to a "'large-scale import substitution plan aimed at nationalising key industries'" or "'severely curtailing the position of foreign business'".
In addition, Aegis Europe underlines the risk for the EU of a surge of Chinese dumped products as a knock-on effect of Donald Trump's USA adopting more forceful measures to curb the surge of Chinese imports and overcapacities being dumped on the US market. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)