The EU has resumed its case against China at the WTO over allegations of economic coercion targeting Lithuania, an EU official said.
Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that the EU was expected to resume the case this week following a one-year suspension. It might re-suspend the proceedings again as early as next week to gather more evidence.
The EU filed a complaint against China at the WTO in 2022 as a result of trade restrictions Beijing imposed on Lithuania after the Baltic country opened a Taiwanese representative office in its capital.
Photo: EPA-EFE
China has repeatedly voiced opposition to countries engaging in official contact with the government in Taipei.
The commission, the EU’s executive arm, at the time, said that China was using economic coercion against one of its member states — a claim that the US and 17 other countries supported as third parties in the case.
In January last year, the EU decided to suspend the proceedings, setting off a year-long lobbying frenzy, with other capitals pushing Brussels not to give up for fear that it would set a bad precedent. The deadline to resume the case expires this week.
Officials from then-US president Joe Biden’s administration had urged the EU to keep pursuing the case.
Not doing so would also have risked antagonizing US President Donald Trump’s administration and some EU members.
The EU is trying to strike a balance between its initial exchanges with Trump and his advisers, who have been vocal about the bloc taking a stronger stance toward China.
The logic back then was that the EU would have likely lost the case because the required evidence was no longer there and could make the EU look weak, people familiar with the matter said.
Suspending the case was tactical, one of the people said, who like the others was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive issues.
The EU has numerous other cases at the WTO involving China, including over patent royalties.
It has also probed the second-largest economy in several areas including public tenders, the procurement of medical devices and electric vehicles, where the bloc applied tariffs last year despite immense pressure from Beijing.
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