China has vowed a “resolute response” to safeguard its industries if the European Union goes ahead with restrictions against Chinese companies or products, according to its commerce ministry.
– The ministry was referring to a reported joint document drafted by some EU member states pushing for a tool to tackle unfair trade and take more forceful measures against China.
– The tool amounts to a “typical protectionist and unilateralist measure”, and will disrupt stability of China-EU trade, the ministry said in a statement late on Tuesday.
– “If the European side engages in talks and consultations with China, while increasingly pressuring China, it will seriously undermine mutual trust, interfere with the overall process of consultation,” the ministry cautioned.
– China could respond with a “strong policy toolbox” that includes anti-discrimination probes, security investigations into industrial and supply chains and could also look into the impact of foreign subsidies, state-backed newspaper Global Times reported on Wednesday, citing an unnamed Chinese observer as saying.
– Global Times linked the warning to an article by Rhodium Group’s senior adviser on Europe-China ties, Noah Barkin, who said Germany and France were finalising a joint paper this week to call on the European Commission to fast-track development of an instrument that mirrors the United States’ Section 301 unfair trade practices provision, to deter China in the EU market.