BOFIT Viikkokatsaus / BOFIT Weekly Review 2016/30
After the meeting, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker linked the discussion of granting market-economy status to China’s domestic steel overcapacity problems. The EU and China decided to create a joint working group on steel to allow frank discussion on overcapacity problems as well as monitor Chinese measures to resolve its steel issues. China accounts for about half of global steel production. At a time when its economic structures are changing, domestic steel demand is expected to fall and many fear that the country will try to dump even more steel onto the global market. The EU has already imposed anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese steel, claiming that China has been selling steel at prices below production cost in Europe. A week after the meeting, China decided to impose anti-dumping tariffs on certain types of steel imported from the EU, Japan and South Korea.