China urges EU not to abuse trade remedy measures in tire probe

BEIJING - China is concerned about the European Union's anti-dumping probe against Chinese tire products and urges the EU to use trade remedy measures discreetly, an official with the commerce ministry said Friday.

The European Commission, or the EU's executive arm, announced on Friday that it would launch an anti-dumping investigation into truck and bus tires imported from China.

There is no sufficient evidence that Chinese exporters are dumping truck and bus tires onto the EU market and hurting EU industries, said Wang Hejun, head of the Ministry of Commerce trade remedy and investigation bureau.

The amount of Chinese tire exports to EU countries has remained stable in the past two years, said Wang, who attributed lower product prices to a decline in global commodity prices.

In February this year, the United States terminated its anti-dumping investigation against bus and truck tires from China as no damage to US industry was found.

Chinese and European tire firms have enjoyed close cooperation, and the EU-initiated probe will not only undermine the interests of Chinese enterprises, but also affect the development of the EU tire industry and the benefits of its own consumers, Wang said.

The Chinese government is highly concerned with the EU investigation and will protect the justified rights of Chinese companies, he said.

The EU, a WTO member, should have stopped using the surrogate country approach to conduct anti-dumping investigations against China by Dec 11, 2016, said Wang, citing Article 15 of the accession protocol signed when China joined the WTO.

He urged the EU to fulfill its WTO obligations by conducting the investigation fairly and using trade remedy measures discreetly.