Time to break free of protectionist shackles

The overwhelming-majority vote in the European Parliament recently against granting China market economy status was not made on a reasonable basis and doing so will not bring benefits to the European Union.

Whether or not to give China the market economy status treatment is not an issue concerning whether China has met market economic standards unilaterally set by the EU, but an issue concerning whether the EU honors its commitment or not.

According to the accession articles China signed on entry to the World Trade Organization 15 years ago, China should be automatically granted market economy status in December this year. Such an article is unconditional and means that WTO members should abandon the surrogate country approach used in the past for anti-dumping investigations against China. Any investigation should instead be based on product prices or production costs in China itself.