TMTPost -- China criticizes the European Union’s latest protectionist move and urged the bloc to abide by the World Trade Organization (WTO) regulations.

Credit：the European Commission

The EU has been frequently using its economic and trade “toolkit” and trade remedies, and such moves send out a signal of protectionism, aim at Chinese companies and hurt the EU’s own image, Wang Wenbin, the spokesperson of China’s Foreign Ministry, commented on an recent investigation the EU started at a regular press on Wednesday. China urges the EU to honor its commitment to open market and fair competition, observe WTO rules and stop going after and restraining Chinese companies under various pretexts, the spokesperson said.

The EU claims it is the most open market in the world, but as the world can see, it is clearly inching toward protectionism, Wang said. In contrast, Wang noted China has firmly upheld the multilateral trade regime, practiced true multilateralism and delivered on its commitments to the WTO. He listed the efforts China made in the past year to play an active and constructive role in global economy and trade, such as China’s being the first major developing country to complete the approval procedure of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies and facilitating the WTO’s substantial conclusion of negotiations on a number of global digital trade rules.

The European Commission announced Wednesday it has initiated for the first time an investigation under the International Procurement Instrument (IPI) in response to measures and practices in the Chinese procurement market for medical devices. The EU executive body accused China of unfair discrimination against European companies and products and said the probe came after its repeated discussions with China on its procurement market for medical devices have been fruitless. The Commission said evidence it gathered indicates China’s procurement market for medical devices has gradually become more closed for European and foreign firms because of measures introduced by China that “unfairly differentiate between local and foreign companies, and between locally produced and imported medical devices. ”

The European Commission said its investigation and consultations will be concluded within nine months, which it may extend by five months in justified cases. It may suspend the investigation and the consultations at any time if China takes satisfactory corrective actions or commitments. It can resume the investigation and the consultations, if it later concludes that the reasons for the suspension are no longer valid. If the investigation confirms the existence of the suspected practices, the Commission will be entitled to slap retaliatory measures on China to level competition on both sides. Chinese companies could be completely cut off from public procurement across the EU. Alternatively, the Commission may limit the prohibition to tenders that exceed a certain value or impose conditions that lower the score of Chinese applicants..

The investigation is the second inquiry the EU launched in three weeks. The European Commission is launching a new inquiry into Chinese suppliers of wind turbines as it is concerned certain manufacturers may benefit from unfair subsidies, Margrethe Vestager, the executive vice-president of the EU executive, announced April 9. “We are investigating the conditions for the development of wind parks in Spain, in Greece, in France, in Romania and in Bulgaria.” Vestagerthe said. The EU’s anti-trust commissioner claimed China had attracted foreign investment, acquired technology and granted “massive subsidies” to domestic suppliers before exporting cheaply, resulting in less than 3% of solar panels installed in Europe are produced locally. “We can’t afford to see what happened on solar panels, happening again on electric vehicles, wind or essential chips,” she said.

The head of the Trade Remedies Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce of China (MOFCOM) has lodged stern representations against EU’s investigation and its report about severe distortions in China's economy, , according to the ministry’s statement April 10, a day after Vestager’s annoucement. The EU’s probe into Chinese wind turbine suppliers in five EU member states under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) on April 9 is the fourth investigation that EU initiated under FSR against Chinese companies in nearly two months, official at MOFCOM pointed out in the statement. China believes Chinese new energy-related firms are obvious targets of all the recent inquires launched by EU so far, the official said. The official warned that EU’s move will not just dampen confidence of Chinese enterprises in investments and trade cooperation in EU, interfere with mutual beneficial industrial cooperation between China and Europe, and impede global efforts to address climate change and the process of green transformation.

The Chinese commerce official accused EU of wanton distorting the definition of subsidies, and conducting inquires without open or transparent procedural standards, which is a protectionist act that harms the level playing field in the name of fair competition. China expresses strong dissatisfaction with the EU move and firmly opposes that, urging EU to cease the wrong doing and make correction immediately, the official said.