The European Union imposed tariffs as high as 39.1 percent on Chinese paper[paper?:paper sample maker cutting machine] to counter below-cost imports, curbing competition for producers in Europe including Sappi Ltd. in an unprecedented trade dispute.
The European Commission introduced the “anti-dumping” duties on Chinese coated fine paper in a case that may also lead to the EU’s first anti-subsidy levies against China. The paper is used for books, brochures and magazines.
Europe’s 4 billion-euro ($5 billion) market for coated fine paper is the latest focal point of trade tensions after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao snubbed European pleas last month to let the yuan’s exchange rate rise faster. To bolster European exporters and narrow its trade deficit with China, the EU says the Chinese government should follow up more ambitiously on its June pledge to ease the yuan off a two-year peg to the dollar.
European makers of coated fine paper suffered “material injury” as a result of dumped imports from China, the commission, the 27-nation EU’s trade authority in Brussels, said today in the Official Journal. The levies, due to take effect tomorrow, are for six months and may be prolonged for five years.
