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China-EU relations
ChinaDiplomacy

China blocks EU’s efforts to form WTO panels on Lithuania export freeze and hi-tech patents

  • Beijing said the moves were ‘puzzling and premature’ but will not be able to stop the bloc from continuing with the case next month
  • The two cases centre on claims that Lithuanian firms are being punished for the country’s ties with Taiwan and intellectual property protections

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The EU wants WTO panels to hear two cases over alleged Chinese breaches of global trade rules. Photo: AFP
Finbarr Berminghamin Brussels
China blocked the European Union’s efforts to launch two dispute hearings at the World Trade Organization on Tuesday, saying the moves were “puzzling” and “premature”.
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The EU had wanted to bring two separate cases where it accuses Beijing of breaching global trading rules before WTO judges.

However, it will again request that panels to hear the cases are formed in January. China will no longer be able to veto the proceedings at this point since member states can only block such requests once.

The first case is a high-profile spat over the alleged economic coercion of Lithuania, whose exporters found themselves frozen out of the Chinese market late last year.

In the second dispute, the EU claims China is using domestic courts to undermine intellectual property laws, thereby allowing Huawei Technologies, Xiaomi and other telecoms giants to secure cut-price technology licences.

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At a meeting of the WTO’s dispute settlement body in Geneva on Tuesday, China said the request to establish a disputes panel to hear the Lithuania case was “premature”, according to a Geneva trade source.

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