The European Commission is opening an investigation against China to check whether European companies are not gaining equal access to the Chinese market for their medical devices products, with items ranging from hypodermic needles to high-tech scanners under control.
The new investigation is the latest in a string of investigation over Chinese practices that are seen by many across the bloc as restrictive for European companies. In a statement presenting the probe, commission trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis said that “we are launching this investigation with China so that we can achieve a level playing field in our procurement markets for producers of medical devices, on both sides.”
Before opening the probe, the commission gathered evidence to show how China gradually closed access to European firms, creating an unfair difference between local and foreign companies. According to the commission, the damage was mostly for companies from France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, however it warned that the medical device market includes so many companies of different size that the unfair treatment spills over across the bloc.
As a first step, the EU will send questions to Chinese authorities on the matter. Usually, this step may take between nine to 14 months. Further steps will delve more in the issue with the EU that could end up restricting access to Chinese buyers, goods and services.
Despite this, the commission at the moment hopes that there will be no further actions needed. According to commission’s spokesperson Olof Gill, “our expectation is that China’s market for public procurement will be as open to us as ours is to them. Simple. Nothing more, nothing less.”
However, China didn’t like the opening of the investigation and accused the EU of protectionism. The spokesperson of its foreign ministry Wang Wenbin commented on the probe: “the EU has always touted itself as the most open market worldwide, but what we see now is that it is gradually moving towards protectionism.”
