Global Fastener News

EU-China Row Over Fastener Tariffs Helps Sink Summit

Jason Sandefur

The row between the European Union and China over steel fasteners reportedly contributed to China’s decision to cancel the annual summit between the two governments.

The European Commission has recommended an antidumping tariff of 87.3% on a majority of exporting Chinese fastener factories, prompting China to mull filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization.

Officially, China pulled out of the summit because of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision to meet the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, Reuters reports.

But experts say that China’s decision to cancel the summit “highlights deeper failings that may distract from efforts to resuscitate the international financial system and stalled global trade talks,” writes Chris Buckley of Reuters.

Chinese companies reportedly shipped about $745 million worth of fasteners to the EU in 2007.

The election of “less pro-China leaders in Paris and Berlin,” along with trade and diplomatic friction with Beijing, has dampened hopes that a united Europe could serve as a counterweight to U.S. influence .

“Emboldened by the successful Beijing Olympics and the financial crisis battering the West”, Chinese President Hu Jintao is less willing to swallow his irritation with Europe, according to Shi Yinhong, a professor at Renmin University in Beijing.

“China believes that Europe values its own values too much,” said Shi. “But China is becoming more self-confident and Hu Jintao is increasingly inclined to do things his own way.”

While some of these issues may be sorted out in the end, experts on Chinese-Europe relations call the relationship “a mess.” �2008 FastenerNews.com