EU warned against trade protectionism

The complaints the EU plans to file with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Chinese duties on seamless steel tubes are connected to the recent solar panel and wine trade disputes between the two sides, but mounting trade protectionism will cause serious damage to the EU amid its economic slump, an expert said Wednesday.

"The EU has seen a sharp decline in its industrial core competitiveness. Facing China's good-value products, increasingly advanced technology and huge amount of investment, the EU can do nothing but resort to protectionism," Zhao Yongsheng, a visiting scholar with the Institute of European Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

"The EU is willing to engage in tit-for-tat duties. Even though it always advertises itself as a paragon of openness and democracy, the EU is now practicing a 'closed-door' policy. The effects of such a practice will be seriously damaging to the EU at a time of economic slump," Zhao said.

The EU plans to file a complaint with the WTO about Chinese duties on seamless stainless steel tubes made by European companies such as Spain's Tubacex S.A. and Germany's Salzgitter AG, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing anonymous sources.

According to a separate source, the European Commission will brief China on Thursday before filing the complaint before a meeting of EU trade ministers in Luxembourg on Friday, the report said.

In November 2012, China announced it would levy anti-dumping duties on high-grade stainless steel tubes imported from the EU and Japan, ranging from 9.2 percent to 14.4 percent for five years. In 2011, the EU imposed anti-dumping duties of up to 71.9 percent on Chinese seamless stainless steel tubes.

In May, Japan asked for a WTO panel to evaluate its complaints against China for levying duties on the steel tubes.

The WTO told the Global Times Wednesday that it has not received any official communication from the EU on the matter.

The EU also announced on June 4 a preliminary decision to impose duties on Chinese solar panels. The following day, China said it would launch an anti-dumping and countervailing investigation into wine imported from the EU.

The EU's trade spokesman did not confirm the plan to file a complaint with the WTO when contacted by the Global Times Wednesday, and said WTO Dispute Settlement cases are not conducted overnight.

"They take many, many months of detailed legal preparation based upon hard evidence and so their timing is entirely coincidental in relation to any other legal action.

"It is simply wrong and misguided to try to see linkages when there are none," John Clancy, EU Trade Spokesman, said in an e-mail sent to the Global Times Wednesday.

"The EU does not do 'retaliation' but works within the rule of law. The EU will only enter into the WTO Dispute Settlement if and when it has a clear legal basis to do so," Clancy said.