The European Commission made preliminary ruling on the anti-dumping investigation against the hot-rolled sheet and medium plate products imported from China on October 7, deciding to implement provisional anti-dumping measures for six months. Official from MOFCOM Trade Remedy and Investigation Bureau made comments on it.

The official said, China has been concerned and worried about the protectionism tendency that EU has showed in steel field recently. EU has adopted the method of substitute country on many Chinese steel products recently which is unjust and unreasonable and the frequent use of trade remedy measures has severely impaired the interest of the Chinese enterprises. The Chinese government has insisted on using the trade remedy measures prudently and carefully, and that trade measures should strictly abide by WTO rules and be implemented fairly and transparently. He hoped that the EU could abide by WTO rules and fully uphold the Chinese enterprises’ rights of defense.

He pointed out that Chinese steel products take up less than 5% in EU market and could not impact the EU steel industry. The difficulty that the EU steel industry meets should be attributed to the weak economic growth rather than trade itself. To rashly adopt trade protectionism and restrict fair competition is not a right path and direction for the development of the EU steel industry. We hope the EU could analyze rationally, regard the problems facing the present EU steel industry objectively, and launch trade remedy investigation and trade restrictive measures prudently.

The official stressed that the G20 Leaders’ Communique at Hangzhou Summit has reiterated the fight against any form of trade and investment protectionism and agreed to prolong its commitment to reducing and not to adopting new trade protective measures until 2018. The Chinese side felt sorry for EU’s action against the Chinese steel products and called on the EU to honor its commitment on international occasion and avoid sending wrong signal to the outside world. The EU and China boast extensive cooperation prospect, the Chinese side would like to strengthen communication and exchanges with the EU side and jointly deal with the present problems.