Brussels, 23/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - As predicted in EUROPE 9922, in the hope of finding a mutually satisfactory solution with Beijing, the EU and the United States, on Tuesday 23 June, formally requested WTO consultations with China on China's export restrictions on a number of key raw materials, which the two complainants consider to be in breach of international trade rules. Several raw materials are affected, including yellow phosphorus, bauxite, coke, fluorspar, magnesium, manganese, silicon metal, silicon carbide and zinc. Some of these resources can only be found in China. In a press release, the European Commission says that this is the first batch of measures and products and that European industry is also unhappy about other products. The Commission, acting within the new EU integrated strategy with targeted measures to improve European industry access to raw materials in resource-rich countries (see EUROPE 9775), does not rule out going further. For years, European industry has complained about Chinese export restrictions, that take the form of quotas, export taxes or minimum export prices, because they increase the cost of imported raw materials, affecting especially the chemicals industry, steel and non-ferrous metals sector and customers of these industries' downstream customers. “The EU considers that these restrictions are in violation not only of general WTO rules, but also of specific commitments that China signed up to as part of the WTO Accession Protocol, which set out either prohibitions against the use of export duties or strict caps on a limited number of products, as well as disciplining the use of export licensing and binding minimum export prices,” the Commission says. In this, the first stage in the WTO dispute settlement process, consultations can last up to 60 days, before a special group is set up to assess the complaint, if the consultations have not found a way to resolve the matter. (E.H./transl.rt)