Britain will join Taiwan, the US and Australia in backing an EU trade case against China at the WTO over Beijing’s alleged trade curbs on Lithuania, a move that British Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan said would oppose “coercive trading practices.”
The EU last month launched a challenge at the trade body based in Geneva, Switzerland, accusing China of discriminatory trade practices against Lithuania that it says threaten the integrity of the EU’s single market.
“We will request to join the EU’s WTO consultation into these measures as a third party to ensure we combat economic coercion in trade together,” Trevelyan wrote on Twitter.
Photo: Bloomberg
Taiwan, the US and Australia have signaled that they intend to join the consultations.
US Trade Representative spokesman Adam Hodge said that US President Joe Biden’s administration is “deeply concerned” by China’s discriminatory trade practices against Lithuanian goods and EU goods with Lithuanian content.
“We will continue working with Lithuania, the EU, and like-minded allies and partners to push back on the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] coercive economic and diplomatic behavior,” Hodge said in a Jan. 27 statement. “The United States will request to join these WTO consultations in solidarity with Lithuania and the European Union.”
Vilnius is under pressure from China to reverse a decision last year to allow Taiwan to open a representative office in the capital under its own name.
China has downgraded diplomatic ties with the Baltic nation and pressured multinationals to sever ties with it.
The challenge at the WTO allows 60 days for the parties to confer to reach a settlement. If none is reached, the EU may choose to launch a formal dispute that would set up a WTO panel to study its claims against China.
A Geneva-based trade official said that the participation of other Western countries, assuming they are not blocked by Beijing, would be “helpful” to the EU’s case.
“If you have other members arguing on your behalf and putting forward arguments, I think the panel would look at that,” he said.
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