EU-China trade spat intensifies as anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese ironing boards extended
The European Union has extended anti-dumping duties on ironing boards imported from China by five years, but lifted them for these products coming from Ukraine.
China used to control around 40 to 45 per cent of the EU ironing board market – but this fell to 15 to 20 per cent when the duties were introduced in 2011. This helped Ukraine’s single producer Eurogold Industries increase its share of the market to ten per cent from eight per cent even with its own tariffs.
When duties were originally imposed in 2007, imports from Ukraine were levied at 9.9 per cent and those from China at a top rate of 38.1 per cent. In 2010, this was reduced to 7.7 per cent for Ukraine and the top rate increased to 42.3 per cent for China.
The ironing board market in the EU is worth just €100m, but is enough to further irritate the Chinese, who have also been the target of anti-dumping duties within the €21bn solar panel market. Earlier this month, Beijing also opened an investigation into wine coming from the EU.