The EU will investigate whether China is unfair to European companies

– Transparency is fundamentally important for business to flourish, for consumers and to create innovation worldwide, said EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis when the investigation was announced on Wednesday.

He says that the discussions that the EU has had with China so far have been fruitless.

According to the EU, the investigation is an attempt to ensure that European manufacturers of everything from syringe tips to high-tech scanners get the same opportunity to win public tenders in China as Chinese companies have in EU countries.

Discrimination?

The European Commission believes it has evidence to suggest that the Chinese market has gradually been closed to European companies and products made in the EU. The suspicion is that China treats Chinese and foreign companies differently when it comes to purchasing medical equipment.

According to the EU, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands are among the worst affected countries. But thousands of companies are probably affected by the practice, the commission believes.

List of questions

The investigation, which might take up to 14 months, starts with the EU sending a list of questions to the Chinese authorities.

– Our expectation is that China’s public procurement market will be as open to us as ours is to them. Single. No more, no less, says European Commission spokesman Olof Gill.

According to the EU, Chinese exports of medical equipment to Europe have increased by over 100 percent between 2015 and 2023.

China strikes back

China believes that the investigation smacks of protectionism.

– The EU has always boasted of itself that it is the most open market in the world, but what we see now is that it is gradually moving towards protectionism, says spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Wenbin.

The investigation is the first following the EU adopted the IPI regulation. It must ensure reciprocity in market access for public procurement, so that countries that do not open their markets to EU providers do not get access to public tender rounds in the EU either. IPI entered into force in August 2022.