Chinese Fastener Manufacturers Challenge EU Antidumping Investigation

Jason Sandefur

In a rare public move, members of the Jiaxing Association of Fasteners held a press conference in Brussels on February 26 to urge the European Union to reject antidumping duties on exports from China.\
The association warned that European consumers and companies would also suffer. “We want to use this channel to urge European Union consumers and importers to fight with us as this case represents their interests too,” said Tu Zhiqing, deputy secretary of the Jiaxing Association of Fasteners Import and Export Companies.
Tu pointed out that European fastener manufacturers no longer produce product equivalent to what China exports, Fastener & Fixing Europe reported. He argued that EC investigators should exclude from consideration the arguments of European fastener producers who also have plants in China. Specifically referencing Agrati and the Vescovini Group, Tu said that dropping the multi-continent producers would bring the market share of complainants to less than the minimum required to justify an EC investigation.
Trade lawyer Robert Maclean, representing Jiaxing, said that these companies could escape duties on shipments to Europe if the Commission deemed their business practices to be in line with a normal market economy, something not usually granted to Chinese companies.
The Jiaxing Association also pointed out that increases in the cost of steel have resulted in a 50% increase in their export prices. If duties are applied by August, Chinese producers could ask their government to take action against the EU at the WTO, Tu added. �2008 FastenerNews.com