The European Union (EU) has entered discussions to draw up a more equitable tariff regime for Chinese exporters who face punitive anti-dumping duties.
China is the biggest victim of EU anti-dumping duties and investigations, with the EU coming under increasing criticism from the Chinese Government and European companies with joint ventures on the mainland to provide a more discretionary system.
The move towards reform is particularly aimed at Hong Kong trading companies, which are based in the territory but export products from the mainland. Hong Kong accounts for about half of EU-China trade.
In the latest incident, the Luxembourg-based Court of First Instance rejected an application by Hong Kong's Climax Paper Converters, part of Climax International Co, which had asked for a discount tariff for exports of photograph albums.
Following an anti-dumping investigation, the EU, in 1993, imposed on Chinese photograph album exports a punitive general anti-dumping duty of 18.6 per cent. Climax had wanted a duty of 11.5 per cent calculated on its own individual exports.
However, the Court of First Instance said Climax had 'not demonstrated that it was sufficiently independent of the influence of Chinese authorities'.
