Market Economy Status for China one of the EP ‘most pressing issues’

By 11 December 2016, the EU has to take a decision on how to address the partial expiry of article 15 of China’s WTO Accession Protocol, which allows it to use the existing method of calculating dumping margins in anti-dumping cases against Beijing. Certain European manufacturers have warned that granting China the so-called Market Economy Status (MES) would in practice strip the EU of its only weapon against Beijing’s unfair trade practices. Discussing China’s request for MES for the first time at the European Parliament plenary on 1 February, MEPs slammed the Commission for dragging its feet on what they perceive as a very important and complex issue.