EU files WTO complaint against China over steel fasteners
(GENEVA) - The European Union said Monday that it had filed a complaint against China at the World Trade Organisation, in a tit-for- tat battle over trade in steel fasteners worth hundreds of millions of euros.
The EU challenged anti-dumping duties imposed by Beijing on imports of screws, nuts and bolts which affects some 140 million euros (179 million dollars) of the 27-nation European bloc's exports to China per year, officials said.
The move on Friday followed a separate but similar WTO complaint filed by China against the European Union last year over EU anti-dumping duties on fasteners.
"We have asked China for consultations about provisional anti-dumping measures on steel fasteners," the official at the EU's mission to the WTO in Geneva told AFP.
Consultations are the first step in the WTO's dispute system, allowing the two parties up to 60 days to find an amicable settlement.
"We urge China to lift the provisional duties on EU screws and bolts, and not to impose definitive ones," said John Clancy, trade spokesman at the European Commission.
"We consider that these Chinese anti-dumping duties violate the rules of the World Trade Organization. These duties are unfounded and undermine the legitimate interests of EU companies," he added.
The EU is challenging the way China calculates the extent of dumping on steel fasteners such as nuts and bolts for dumping and the resulting penalty taxes imposed on imports from the EU.
China has imposed provisional anti-dumping duties on certain EU-made iron or steel fasteners of between 16.8 and of 24.6 percent since December 28, and could decide to make them permanent by June 29, according to the EU.
Dumping occurs when exports are sold at below the cost on their home market. The 153 WTO member states have a right to respond by levying extra tax.
China, the world's biggest producer of screws, nuts, bolts and washers, targeted the EU with a complaint last July over penalties imposed by Brussels on allegedly dumped Chinese-made steel fasteners.
The dispute last year arose after a final European Commission decision in January 2009 to impose anti-dumping tariffs on imports of some Chinese steel and iron fasteners, ranging from 26.5 percent to as high as 85 percent.
China then retaliated by launching its own anti-dumping probe into imports of screws and bolts made in the European Union.
The European Union is China's biggest export market for fasteners, with imports worth 575 million euros (762 million dollars) in 2007, according to the Jiaxing Association of Chinese Fastener Producers.
EU-China trade has exploded in recent years, making the EU the top destination for Chinese exports while China is Europe's biggest trade partner after the United States.
It has also led to an accumulation of disputes between the two sides at the Geneva-based global trade body, notably Chinese shoes and certain raw materials.