Over a Dozen Senators Urge EU Commission Not To Grant Market Economy Status to China

Eighteen senators led by Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, urged the EU Trade Commission to maintain China’s non-market economy status in antidumping duty cases until it becomes a true market economy, citing unfair state lending to nine state-owned steel producers and “rampant violation” of intellectual property rights, among other things, in a letter to EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom. The senators said that China claims that its World Trade Organization Accession Protocol requires countries to treat it as a market economy by the end of this year, based on the country’s prices or costs, but the protocol actually allows WTO members to employ an alternate antidumping methodology if investigated producers cannot prove the existence of market economy conditions.