The European Commission imposes sanctions on the dumping of Chinese tableware

The European commission has introduced provisional anti-dumping duties to be applied to imports of porcelain and ceramic tableware from China.

The measure, which comes into effect as of Friday 16 November, establishes an import duty of between 17.6% and 31.2% for Chinese companies that have collaborated with the survey and 58.8% for those that have not.

The introduction of duties on imports of Chinese tableware is good news for all companies that in the current extremely difficult market situation would have been forced to close down or move their production activities abroad. The measure concerns all product segments and in particular the medium and low-end segments handled by large-scale distribution chains.

The introduction of compensatory duties on dumping (selling below cost) will enable international competition to return to fair levels, removing the causes of distortion that have had a severely negative impact on European businesses and society. The European porcelain and ceramic tableware industry currently has an output of 240,000 tons and employs more than 25,000 people, including a significant portion of highly trained female workers. But EU consumption exhibits a severe anomaly in that more than 65% of the total originates from China. Moreover, the situation has deteriorated rapidly in the last 10 years, since 2004 when Chinese imports accounted for 22% of total consumption and the average price was 70% lower than that of other exporter countries.

On 16 February last year the European Commission officially launched an antidumping investigation following a complaint made by the leading European producers, who account for more than 50% of the EU porcelain and ceramic tableware industry, with the support of the European federation FEPF. The aim of the initiative was to demonstrate the damage caused to the European industry by sales made at unfair prices in Europe by Chinese companies.

It is to be hoped that alongside these measures the European Commission will also make it obligatory to indicate the mark of origin, an essential step to enable consumers to make informed purchases.