A member of staff checks the stainless steel production line on April 27, 2023 in Jiayuguan, Northwest China's Gansu Province. A recent product developed by the steel company has broken the foreign monopoly.Photo: cnsphoto

EU anti-subsidy probes into Chinese steel is disrupting international trade order, pushing up downstream production costs, affecting consumer interests, and harming the global industrial and supply chain, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said at a press conference on Thursday.

The comments came after the Financial Times and several Western media outlets reported earlier that the EU is planning to announce anti-subsidy investigations against "steelmakers producing to excess" in countries such as China as part of an agreement with the US government.

The report, although it is yet to be confirmed by the EU, has drawn market attention.

The European Union has adopted various trade-restrictive measures against imported steel products, including its widely criticized steel safeguard measures and more than 60 anti-dumping and countervailing measures. The EU steel market has become one of the markets with high trade barriers and prices, spokesperson He Yadong from MOFCOM said.

China has consistently advocated the reasonable and prudent use of trade remedy measures, and resolutely opposes the unilateralist and protectionist practices of abusing trade remedy measures. MOFCOM will closely monitor the actions of the EU, He added.

The EU has already put in place punitive tariffs on 20 Chinese steel and stainless-steel items and has set import quotas. At the end of 2021, the EU imposed tariffs on imports of steel towers used for wind turbines from China following an investigation.

However, Chinese experts noted that the EU's planned anti-subsidy investigations into the steelmakers will have a limited impact on the Chinese steelmaking industry given  reduced exports of Chinese-made steel items to the bloc lately.

Global Times