China snubs EU efforts to mediate in Lithuania row, as trade embargo worsens

Chinese customs says it is too preoccupied with the coronavirus pandemic to discuss alleged trade block

Lithuanian vice-foreign minister is not surprised, but calls the action ‘hypocritical’

Reading Time:4 minutes

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda (right) receives Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Vilnius, Lithuania, on November 28. Photo: Nato/dpa

Published: 7:03pm, 9 Dec 2021Updated: 9:43pm, 9 Dec 2021

The Chinese customs authority has rejected the European Union’s request to discuss an alleged trade block on Lithuanian firms, claiming it is too preoccupied with the coronavirus pandemic.

The EU has vowed to investigate claims from Lithuania that the Baltic nation had been frozen out of the Chinese customs system.

But its initial advances were knocked back, according to sources familiar with the matter.

It now plans to raise the situation with other levels of the Chinese government, after threatening Beijing on Wednesday with a lawsuit at the World Trade Organization (WTO) if claims made by Lithuanian businesses were verified.

China’s General Administration of Customs did not immediately respond to a faxed request for comment.

Lithuanian vice-foreign minister Mantas Adomenas told the South China Morning Post that he was “not surprised” that the Chinese authorities had declined to meet, but described the action as “hypocritical”.

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