EU launches public consultation for granting China market economy status

Photo taken on Jan 8, 2016 shows view of European Commission in Brussels, Belgium. [Photo/IC]

BRUSSELS - The European Union (EU) launched a public consultation concerning whether to grant China the market economy status (MES) on Wednesday, seeking inputs for its in-depth assessment of the status-changing on the bloc's economy.

Open for 10 weeks, the online consultation was about the methods used in the EU's "anti-dumping" procedures on imported Chinese products, as the current measures are set to expire in December, said the European Commission, the EU's executive body, in a statement.

The Commission was currently carrying out a "comprehensive" assessment on the economic effects of changing the treatment of China as a market economy in its "anti-dumping investigations."

The current rules the EU adopted to calculate dumping margins on Chinese products, which based on that China was not considered a market economy in anti-dumping proceedings, will expire on Dec. 11, according to rules of the WTO.

The Commission was set to offer a proposal to the European Council and the European Parliament on whether to grant China MES before the deadline.

Since the EU has not regarded China as a market economy, China has fallen victim to some unfair and discriminatory EU practice.

Under the current EU anti-dumping investigations against China, the assessment is based on a comparison of the export price with that in a "surrogate country" with MES, instead of the domestic price of the product in question.

So far, over 80 economies, including Russia, New Zealand, Singapore and Australia, have recognized China's status as a market economy.