When announcing the probe the ministry said its national chamber of commerce for importing and exporting machinery and electronics had filed a complaint against the FSR measures.
The 20-page document detailing the ministry’s conclusions said their “selective enforcement” resulted in “Chinese products being treated more unfavourably during the process of export to the EU than products from third countries”.
It added that the FSR had “vague” criteria for investigating foreign subsidies, placed a “severe burden” on the targeted companies and had opaque procedures that created “huge uncertainty”.
EU measures such as surprise inspections “clearly exceeded the necessary limits”, while investigators were “subjective and arbitrary” on issues like market distortion, according to the ministry.
Companies deemed not to have complied with probes also faced “severe penalties”, which placed “huge pressure” on Chinese firms, it said.
PROJECTS CURTAILED
The ministry said FSR investigations had forced Chinese companies to abandon or curtail projects, causing losses of more than 15 billion yuan (US$2.05 billion).
The measures had “damaged the competitiveness of Chinese enterprises and products in the EU market”, it said, adding that they also hindered the development of European national economies and undermined trade cooperation between Beijing and Brussels.
The EU’s first probe under the FSR in February targeted a subsidiary of Chinese rail giant CRRC, but closed after the company withdrew from a tender in Bulgaria to supply electric trains.
A second probe targets Chinese-owned solar panel manufacturers seeking to build and operate a photovoltaic park in Romania, partly financed by European funds.
