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The EU has imposed anti-dumping duties on Chinese language plywood imports, just some days after Beijing tried to ease trade tensions between the 2.
The provisional levies of as much as 62.4 per cent comply with a surge in imports of hardwood plywood over the previous three years that had broken home producers, the European Fee stated.
The Greenwood Consortium of EU producers, which introduced a grievance in opposition to Chinese language opponents final yr, stated it welcomed the transfer however argued for “definitive duties to be even larger than these provisional ranges” when the fee makes a closing resolution later this yr.
Brussels has additionally taken the bizarre step of monitoring imports of softwood plywood, which isn’t topic to duties, after allegations that Chinese language exporters have been disguising hardwood merchandise in anticipation of the levies, which can be backdated to final December. The completely different classes of plywood rely on the kind of timber used to make the engineered product.
“The alleged apply consisted of putting very skinny outer layers of softwood veneer on high of the hardwood plywood face veneer. Such apply makes the product fall underneath customs codes which aren’t topic to registration, with out altering its important traits,” the Fee stated.
“Consequently, to minimise the danger of circumvention, the Fee thought of it applicable to observe such imports.” It warned it might start an anti-circumvention investigation, which might hit such imports.
EU business teams have lengthy complained that Chinese language exporters can dodge duties by barely altering merchandise or sending them by way of third nations, and that Brussels is just too sluggish to react.
The fee stated home plywood business gross sales, manufacturing and income all fell between 2021 and 2023. China accounted for nearly a 3rd of the EU plywood market in 2023, with €327mn in gross sales.
Chinese language imports stuffed a niche left by a ban on Russian and Belarusian plywood after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Moscow in 2022. The Fee warned in March that importers of birch plywood from China ought to test that it was not wooden initially from Russia or Belarus.
The EU has continued with a gradual improve in commerce defence instances in opposition to China because it imposed anti-subsidy duties of as much as 45 per cent on electric vehicles in October 2023. Final month it opened an investigation into automotive and truck tyres and restricted entry for Chinese language corporations to its medical machine market.
“I believe the message to China is that they need to not take as a right the openness of the European market,” stated the EU’s lead commerce official for China, Maria Martin-Prat, at a convention on Friday.
“And I believe China has realised how we’ve developed an entire vary of autonomous [defensive] measures, what we check with as our instrument field, and the way we’re prepared to make use of these instruments.”
The EU has additionally pressed China to elevate export controls on uncommon earth magnets for civilian use, which has led to warnings from the automotive business that manufacturing traces might cease.
Beijing on Saturday introduced a fast-track licensing system for EU corporations, after a gathering between European commerce commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and Chinese language commerce minister Wang Wentao final week.
However Brussels stated merchandise for civilian use have to be exempt. The Chinese language commerce ministry additionally stated it hoped for a negotiated resolution on electrical automobile tariffs, and hinted it might drop antidumping tariffs on EU bourbon imports imposed final yr in return for minimal worth ensures from EU producers.
