Call for higher duty on Chinese cargo scanners

Commission wants provisional anti-dumping duties to be made permanent.

The European Commission is to recommend to member states that provisional anti-dumping duties on Chinese cargo scanners should be made permanent. Last week, an advisory committee supported the move; a formal Commission proposal needs to be submitted to the member states by 17 May. Member states will have one month to decide whether to follow the recommendation. 

A provisional duty of 36.6% was introduced in December on hi-tech cargo-scanning equipment manufactured by Nuctech, a state-owned offshoot of Tsinghua University. Nuctech says that it has exported container-inspection systems to dozens of countries including Belgium and the United Kingdom. The UK’s Smiths Detection, Nuctech’s main European competitor, last year accused Nuctech of using government funding for its research and development and for extended warranties and preferential loans for its customers. Last March, the Commission began an anti-dumping investigation into the firm’s activities.

Nuctech is part of a holding company controlled by Hu Haifeng, a son of Hu Jintao, China’s president.

Formal complaint

Numerous anti-dumping measures have been put in place by the EU against Chinese exports, seen by the Chinese government as evidence of European protectionism. The EU’s extension of duties on leather footwear in December prompted China to lodge a complaint with the World Trade Organization.

Last Thursday (29 April), an EU delegation led by José Manuel Barroso, the president of the Commission, met Chinese leaders in Beijing and Shanghai. The delegation also included Karel De Gucht, the European commissioner for trade.

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