Zhe Jiang RAF Electric Appliance Co.,ltd. , https://www.raf-china.com
First, anti-dumping investigations have been reduced, and anti-subsidy investigations have sprouted. From January to August 2007, the European Union did not initiate a “two anti-one protection†investigation in China. This is a very rare phenomenon, but from September to early December, the EU exports to China. EU products filed five anti-dumping investigations: citric acid, monosodium glutamate, welded pipes made of iron or non-alloy steel, canned citrus fruits, and steel fasteners; and an anti-circumvention survey of loose-leaf binders.
As for the pros and cons of anti-dumping investigations, in December 2006, the European Union published a green paper on trade relief tools to reflect on the legislation and implementation of its trade remedy tools, and publicly solicit opinions from all parties for the revision of the EU anti-dumping law. However, for anti-subsidy investigations, the EU is seeking policy adjustments. According to the current EU law, the EU anti-subsidy investigation does not apply to non-market economies, but the new EU trend indicates that this multi-year law is being loosened, the EU has said For non-market economies that have obtained market economy status in anti-dumping investigations, countervailing investigations will be automatically applied, and the EU may initiate a countervailing investigation. At present, there are 12 EU member states clearly expressing their support for more anti-subsidy measures; only two member states oppose it, and more than 10 member states support the power given to the European Commission to initiate investigations on its own. The European Union’s search for changes in anti-subsidy policies was mainly directed against China. In the questionnaire to seek public opinions on the reform of trade remedy tools, the European Commission proposed whether the use of anti-subsidy and safeguard measures should be increased. In 2007, the EU and China repeatedly accused China of the existence of government subsidies for a number of export products and their attitudes have become increasingly tough. It can be foreseen that the EU's anti-subsidy investigation into China will become another means for the EU to set up trade barriers against China.
II. The emergence of technical trade barriers In January 2007, the European Union issued 33 TBT announcements and issued 48 animal and plant inspection and quarantine measures. These measures introduced by the EU have little impact on developed countries, but they are tangible trade barriers for the majority of developing countries, because the conditions of these developing country enterprises are difficult to achieve. In the WTO Agreement on Technical Trade Measures and Animal and Plant Inspection and Quarantine Measures, special treatment is provided for developing countries, but the European Union did not consider this point and set the same for developed and developing countries when setting up technical trade measures. The high threshold is against the WTO's principle of fairness. Some technical trade measures introduced or put into effect by the European Union in 2007 will produce unprecedented lethality for China's exports of EU products.
1. The entry into force of the EU REACH Regulation has become China’s largest trade barrier after its accession to the WTO.
On June 1, 2007, the EU REACH regulation took effect. The REACH regulation is called the "Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals Act." It will replace more than 40 EU directives and regulations on hazardous substances such as the Classification, Packaging and Labelling of Hazardous Substances, and require mandatory registration, evaluation and licensing of all chemicals on the EU market and access to the EU market and the implementation of safety monitor. REACH is not a separate statute or regulation, but rather a comprehensive regulation that covers the production, trade, and use of chemicals. REACH has incorporated more than 5 million finished products, including textiles, light industry, and pharmaceuticals, in the EU market, into the registration, evaluation, and licensing of three management and monitoring systems. All the chemicals produced by the EU itself for export and imported from abroad and its downstream products must be registered and licensed before they can be circulated in the EU market. As all the costs of material inspection and registration are borne by the company, it is conservatively estimated that the cost that companies in China are required to pay for REACH each year will be 500 million to 1 billion US dollars. In addition, the vast majority of the results of state-level testing and inspection agencies are not recognized by developed countries, making exporters more passive in the face of technical barriers to trade. It will involve about 30,000 chemical products in the EU market, affecting more than 90% of the trade volume between China and the EU, the total import and export of China-EU chemicals will fall by 10%, and the value of China's chemical production will decline by 0.4%, which may lead to 20 Millions of chemical and related employees are unemployed.
2. The EUP environmental directive will become another major environmental barrier following WEEE and ROHS.
The EUP directive took effect in August 2007. The EUP Directive is called the “Energy Product Ecodesign Directive†and covers all electricity-consuming products, including heating and hot water equipment, electric motor systems, home and service lighting equipment, household appliances, and home and service office equipment. , ventilation and air conditioning equipment, etc., and involves an entire industrial chain from design, manufacture, use, maintenance, recycling and post-processing. In accordance with the requirements of this directive, designers must consider the impact of the entire product life cycle on energy, the environment, and natural resources when designing new products. This is indeed a new challenge for Chinese companies. After the implementation of the EUP Directive, in addition to increasing the raw material costs of the electromechanical companies, it will also increase the design and manufacturing costs. For those export companies that have won at low prices, the rising cost will further dilute the originally very modest profits, and the profitability of enterprises will be greatly challenged. Therefore, for those enterprises whose product technology is backward and whose response capacity is insufficient, they may withdraw from the European market. It is expected that after the implementation of the EUP Directive, the impact on the Chinese home appliance industry will not be less than RMB 50 billion.
3. The EU Directive on the Restriction of the Sale and Use of PFOS (the PFOS Directive) on December 27, 2006, which was formally announced and in force at the same time, will be formally implemented on June 27, 2008. The directive stipulates that if PFOS is a constituent substance or element, if the concentration or quality is equal to or exceeds 0.005%, it shall not be sold, and if the concentration or quality of PFOS used in finished and semi-finished products is equal to or exceeds 0.1%, finished products, semi-finished products and parts are also Will be included in the ban. PFOS is the most difficult to degrade organic pollutants found in the world at present. It has high bioaccumulation and various toxicity. PFOS is widely used in textiles, carpets, shoes, papermaking, packaging, printing and dyeing, washing, cosmetics, pesticides, etc. Firefighting agent and hydraulic oil and Other manufacturing fields. The European Union’s ban on the use of PFOS in manufactured products will have a major impact on China’s exports to the EU. Although the EU’s ban has a transition period of 18 months, it has not yet been developed in China. In full compliance with the European Union's textile auxiliaries for PFOS control standards, light industries such as textiles will face daunting challenges.
4. The EU new regulations on the maximum amount of contaminants for foods (Regulation EC 1871/2006) have come into effect on March 1, 2007. The original EC 466/2001 Food Contamination Regulations have been repealed at the same time. The new regulations put forward higher and more comprehensive requirements for the quality and safety of various imported foods. The new regulations set maximum limits for the six major contaminants of nitrates, mycotoxins, heavy metals, dioxins, dioxin-like PCBs, trichloropropanol, and benzopyrazole. The above-mentioned pollutants cover a wide range, and various foods and agricultural products such as aquatic products, animal products, food products, condiments, canned foods, vegetables, fruits, and alcohol are mostly within the scope of the new regulations. After the EU implemented the new regulations for the maximum amount of food contaminants, it further raised the threshold for China's food/agricultural products to enter the EU market, and the production costs and technical costs required for related companies will also increase.
3. Setting up a large number of trade barriers based on the so-called “China's product and food safety issues†For the most part of 2007, the European Union vigorously exaggerated and speculated on the issue of China’s exports to the EU’s products and food safety, and applied it to the Chinese government and export companies. There is even a tendency to politicize the issue.
1. The European Union frequently issues early warning and information bulletins through the "Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed", which has seriously affected China's exports to the European Union.
If a member of the European Union finds that the export food or feed of a certain company in China is a certain hazard or danger, it will quickly notify the European Commission of this information to all other EU members, and at the same time release it through the media to enable consumers to obtain this timely information. However, when the system releases this information, it does not indicate which company the product came from, but it is from that country, such as China, which misleads all EU consumers and believes that all products originate from China. The problem with this product has seriously affected China's reputation in the EU market.
Since the fifteenth week of 2007, two new categories of "Control Type" and "Status" have been added to the "Early Warning and Information Circular issued by the European Union's Food and Feed Rapid Alert System". From January 1 to November 14, 2007, the European Commission has notified 368 food and feedstuffs in China, ranking first in the world.
For export food, China has initially formed a relatively complete food safety laws and regulations system, standard system and supervision system. At present, the processing technology and processing equipment of a considerable number of food enterprises in China have reached or approached the international advanced level. Large enterprises in the meat, dairy products, beverages, and beer industries generally have world-class production and inspection equipment. For food issues between China and Europe, friendly consultations should be conducted to do the following: strengthen international cooperation in the field of food safety; attach great importance to environmental protection in food production areas; establish an international food safety information notification mechanism as soon as possible; resolve international food safety issues through friendly consultations We must give full play to the role of public opinion in the news media.
2. The EU "Rapid Early Warning System for Non-food Products" sets up trade barriers for non-food products in China.
The EU "Rapid Alert System for Non-Food Products (RAPEX)" was established by the EU in 2001 based on the "EU General Product Safety Directive" amendment. As the EU is the main export market for China's products, China is the country with the highest frequency of notifications by the EU's non-food products rapid warning system. From January to September 2007, the number of RAPEX products for China's exports to Europe reached 479 (according to China (Data provided by the Technical Trade Measures Network), in which toys and appliances are the products most affected by the notification.
How can we reduce the EU's notification of China's exports of non-food products? First, government departments quickly establish a service platform to deal with technical trade barriers. Testing agencies must collect technical standards and testing methods from relevant countries to better provide technical support to enterprises. Secondly, production companies must increase their awareness of self-protection, and they should not freely provide certification certificates to others, nor meet customer requirements unconditionally. Attention should be paid to the collection of relevant standards and regulations of importing countries, timely understanding of relevant requirements of importing countries and careful implementation, and selection from raw materials. , design, craftsmanship and means of transportation and other aspects to ensure product quality, improve product quality and technology content, and strive to establish their own well-known brands.
Fourth, correctly understand and respond to the EU's new trade barriers The EU's new trade barriers to China are mainly technical barriers to trade, and these trade barriers should be properly understood in order to take appropriate countermeasures. We should recognize that, besides excluding the political factors in bilateral trade between China and the EU, technical barriers to trade are in fact the product of inequality between countries, such as the level of development between developed and developing countries, especially the level of technological development. The huge gap has resulted in differences and disagreements in the requirements of product quality and standards, and the bilateral trade requirements have not been equal.
The EU's technical barriers to trade have both positive and negative effects on China. Positive effects mainly include: it is beneficial to China's export enterprises to improve technology and adjust industrial structure; it is conducive to the establishment and adjustment of China's environmental standards and regulations; it is conducive to raising awareness of environmental protection and guiding the trend of green consumption; it is conducive to raising awareness of corporate social responsibility and achieving long-term interest. The negative effects mainly include: China suffers from many products with technical trade barriers in the EU, and has large losses. At the same time, the EU's new trade barriers have weakened the competitiveness of China's export enterprises. Therefore, we should correctly understand the EU's technical trade barriers, face the reality, and adapt to the challenges. We must firmly oppose the EU's new trade barriers overly harsh discriminatory practices on China's export products, and we must also recognize the reality of the new EU trade barriers and their rationality. To improve the structure of China's export commodities, we can make our export products more competitive.
Analysis of EU's New Trade Barriers to China in 2007
In 2007, China’s trade with the European Union continued to maintain a good momentum of development. From January to October 2007, bilateral trade volume totaled 287.5 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 27% from 2006. China's trade surplus with the European Union reached 110 billion U.S. dollars, and the trade surplus continued to expand. However, the bilateral trade development has not been smooth sailing. The EU has repeatedly said that it has a "surplus" and set up heavy trade barriers in China's exports to Europe. Looking at the whole year of 2007, there have also been some new trends in the development of EU trade barriers to China. For example, traditional trade remedy measures are decreasing, and more technical trade measures are used, which all warrant our vigilance.