China’s Market Economy Status

December 11, 2016 marks the 15^th anniversary of China joining the WTO. This also means that Article 15(a)(ii) of the Chinese accession protocol expires. From a Chinese point of view, the People’s Republic should therefore be treated as a country with market economy status (MES) in EU anti-dumping cases. This would make it more difficult for the other WTO member states to impose anti-dumping duties on Chinese products. In the EU, the handling of this situation has therefore not been without controversy. Less disputed, on the other hand, is the fact that China’s economic system is not a market economy. This, however, has little to do with awarding market economy status. The MES has so far been relevant for determining protective tariffs in the EU anti-dumping regulation. If the MES is to be abolished in the future, it will be crucial for the EU to retain effective anti-dumping instruments to protect EU firms against unfair competition – independent of the country of origin.

Download our newest GED Study above and read about the possible effects of China’s new status as a market economy and Europe’s response to this. An english download version will be available shortly.

For a shorter version of the study’s main results, click here to read our newest blogpost on this topic!