High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell and European Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis announced on Wednesday 8 December that the EU had been in contact with the Chinese authorities to quickly clarify reports that Lithuanian shipments are not being cleared by Chinese customs and that import requests from Lithuania are being rejected.
These measures were reportedly put in place in retaliation for the opening of a Taiwanese representative office in Vilnius (see EUROPE 12848/21).
“The EU is ready to stand up against all types of political pressure and coercive measures applied against any Member State”, warned the High Representative and the Executive Vice-President, adding that developments in China’s bilateral relations with Member States had an impact on the overall EU-China relationship. On the same day, Mr Dombrovskis presented a new EU instrument to counter coercive measures by third countries (see other news).
Mr Borrell and Mr Dombrovskis also announced that, if the allegations were confirmed, the EU would assess the compatibility of China’s action with its obligations under the World Trade Organization.
For his part, the chair of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with China, Reinhard Bütikofer (Greens/EFA, Germany), denounced the Chinese attitude. “While Lithuania is the least dependent on China trade of all EU member states, the EU cannot accept China’s use of economic harassment because Beijing wants to force political compliance”, he stressed in a statement. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with Léa Marchal)