EU trade experts seek to drop China duties
(Reuters)Updated: 2007-02-15 09:00 BRUSSELS - Trade experts in Brussels have recommended the European Union drop anti-dumping duties on imports from China of frozen strawberries and of energy-saving light bulbs, an EU official said on Wednesday.
Last October, the EU imposed provisional duties of up to 34.2 percent on Chinese frozen strawberries after complaints from EU producers, mainly in Poland, about unfair competition.
But trade specialists at the bloc's executive Commission have proposed the duties should not be made definitive, meaning they could be dropped from April, the EU official said.
The experts found prices remained relatively high for EU producers and making the duties definitive -- meaning they would last for five years -- would hurt EU businesses that consume strawberries, chiefly jam and yoghurt makers, the official said.
The recommendation is being debated within the European Commission and would have to be approved by EU countries.
Last year, the Commission said the EU's Chinese strawberry imports nearly quadrupled between 2002 and 2004, putting nearly 3,000 jobs at risk in the 27-nation bloc.
The Commission has also recommended that anti-dumping duties introduced for five years in 2001 on energy-saving light bulbs made in China should not be renewed, the EU official said.
Dutch-based Philips has argued against the renewal of the duties but Osram, part of Germany's Siemens, has pushed for them to be reintroduced for another five years.
Anti-dumping experts from EU countries are due to debate the issue on Thursday.
EU trade chief Peter Mandelson has launched a review of the the bloc's anti-dumping rules, asking whether they should be reformed to reflect growing interests of EU companies which have invested in China as well as those of manufacturers in Europe.
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