China-EU trade looked like this in 2010
Divisions might arise everywhere in the European Union (EU) as december 2016 approaches, and with it the need of solving the thorny question of granting (or not) market economy status (MES) to China 15 years after it became a member of World Trade Organisation (WTO). At that time, the accession protocol of the Asian country included some special methods to calculate dumping, whose future must be settled by the last month of this year. These tensions have grown not only between states, with the northern ones exposing their willingness accept such a status and those more involved in competition with China -Italy, for instance- showing their strong opposition, but also among other actors such as European businesses, some of which have already voiced their concern about the consequences of the WTO this could entail.
Among other effects, China gaining MES status would substantially restrain the margin of the European Union to launch anti-dumping procedures against Chinese businesses. Some European industries, increasingly jeopardized by competitors, fear that such a limitation on EU’s trade policy could entail very important job losses, as Borderlex.eu informs.
If a coordinated EU response should not be expected before several months, internal negotiations have already begun in order to achieve a unified position, which might be determined not only by that internal inter-state equilibrium, but also by the need to handle relations with the United States of America and China itself, with which bilateral trade and investment treaties are been negotiated.
The discussions engaged by the Commission with both the European Parliament and the Council in order to asses how anti-dumping investigations should evolve after december 2016 must be placed in this context.
Gibeljalea 