Exclusive | Lithuania reports access to Chinese market four days after being excluded amid diplomatic row

EU investigates whether technical problems blocking exports were a one-off issue with its Beijing office contacting Chinese authorities seeking answers
On Wednesday, the EU will unveil a powerful new trade weapon to tackle economic coercion

China-EU relations

Finbarr Berminghamin Brussels

Published: 7:31pm, 7 Dec 2021

Why you can trust SCMP

Lithuanian exporters have again been granted access to the Chinese market, after four days of being unable to send shipments because of technical problems.

Vidmantas Janulevicius, president of the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists, told the South China Morning Post that members had been able to select “Lithuania” as an option when entering the country of origin for the goods they exported.

“From this morning Lithuania are in the system again,” Janulevicius said.

Orders that could not previously be fulfilled were now being completed, he said.

Vidmantas Janulevicius, president of the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists. Photo: Vidmantas Janulevicius / Facebook

However, a second business source said it was still having problems with shipments. A pre-booked shipment of hi-tech goods to China was stalled on Tuesday after the logistics operator said it could not load goods onto the truck because of the political situation.

Last Friday, Lithuania appeared to have been removed from the system, meaning exports could not be fulfilled, and resulting in a pile-up of China-bound goods in warehouses, trains and ships in the tiny Baltic nation.

Lithuania has become embroiled in a feud with China over its decision to bolster ties with Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing claims as a province.

Keeping big brothers at bay: why Lithuania is taking on China

After Lithuania allowed Taipei to open a Taiwanese Representative Office in Vilnius last month, Beijing downgraded diplomatic ties with Vilnius, while exporters have complained of significant disruptions to trade over recent weeks and months.

On Monday, the European Union’s Beijing office contacted authorities in the Chinese capital to find out what was happening with the customs blockage.

A spokeswoman for the EU’s trade department, Miriam Garcia Ferrer, said it was assessing if the situation was systematic or a unique issue.

“The Lithuanian authorities have informed us of individual cases of businesses who have been unable to carry out a customs clearance when they endeavour to export to China. We will see whether this is just a one-off or whether this is systematic,” she said.

“And if that were to be confirmed, we would have to see whether the Chinese action is compatible with WTO rules in parallel. We are also working together with the Chinese authorities to try to seek a clarification.”

On Wednesday, the EU will unveil a powerful new trade weapon designed to tackle economic coercion. While China is not named, and the tool was devised to originally counter former US president Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, Beijing’s increasingly assertive trade behaviour has greatly informed the EU’s work.