The European Commission has doubled its anti-dumping duties on optical fibre cables from China, following an investigation which found that Chinese exporters of optical fibre cables were attempting to impede the effects of the original measures.
Chinese exporters had deliberately decreased their prices to impede the remedial effects of measures originally imposed on imports from China in November 2021. The new anti-dumping duties on optical fibre cables will range from 39.4% to 88%, which is twice the original duties and the maximum increase allowed. They will restore the level playing field undermined by Chinese exporters who decreased their export prices to ‘absorb’ the original duties imposed by the Commission.
Optical fibres are crucial for the EU’s transition to advanced broadband telecommunication and the European optical fibre cable industry – which employs over 5,000 people across many Member States and has a key role to play in the implementation of the EU’s digital agenda. Today’s tightening of measures aims to ensure that the EU industry is not weakened by unfair trading practices of competitors and that it can continue to compete on an equal footing.
The European Commission has renewed anti-dumping duties on imports of tungsten carbide from China for another five years, following an investigation which showed that EU industry would sustain injury from dumped imports if the measures were to lapse.
In place since the 1990s, the EU’s anti-dumping measures on tungsten carbide from China raised the prices of the compound to levels which made the recovery of scrap financially interesting for the EU industry and encouraged innovation of the recycling process.
As a result, EU producers have become more sustainable, following a pattern of circular economy embedded the European Green Deal. At the same, EU producers reduced their consumption of tungsten, the critical raw material needed to make tungsten carbide, and therefore reduced the Union’s dependency on tungsten imports, in line with the objectives of the recent proposal for the European Critical Raw Materials Act.
Tungsten carbide is needed to make hard metal tools which are used in the construction, mining, automotive and defence industries. The EU tungsten carbide industry currently employs over 1,000 people and is worth around EUR 500 million.