China is considering punitive tariffs on chemical imports – Economy

In the trade conflict with the USA and the EU, China is threatening tariffs on certain chemicals, some of which are also used in cars. The Ministry of Commerce in Beijing has launched an anti-dumping investigation into such chemicals from the EU, the USA, Japan and Taiwan. As the ministry further announced on Sunday, the chemicals in question are “copolymerized paraformaldehyde”, which can partially replace copper, zinc, tin, lead and other metallic materials and is used, among other things, in automotive parts, electrical devices and industrial machinery. In foreign trade, dumping means selling a product below the manufacturing price, which violates trade rules. The investigation is expected to be completed within a year, but could be extended for a further six months “under special circumstances”, it said. When asked in Brussels on Sunday, an EU spokesman said that the European Commission had taken note of this decision by the People’s Republic of China. “We will now carefully examine the contents of the investigation before deciding on the next steps.” Experts see the Chinese government’s measure as a counter-reaction to recent trade disputes with the West. US President Joe Biden has, among other things, imposed special tariffs of 100 percent on electric car imports from China. The EU is currently investigating the extent to which China is distorting the market for electric cars. A decision as to whether the EU will impose punitive tariffs is still pending. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and the German economy had spoken out against such tariffs. The chairman of the trade committee in the European Parliament, Bernd Lange (SPD), expects that the EU will soon impose tariffs on Chinese electric cars. “I assume that the investigations into unfair trading practices will lead to countervailing duties on some products,” Lange told the editorial network Germany (RND). The SPD politician criticized the Americans’ move: “The USA has fundamentally changed its stance on trade issues.” American interests take precedence, international rules matter less and less. Lange sees a major risk for Europe that even more Chinese exports will now enter the European market.