Copa-Cogeca has called on the European Commission (EC) to publish as soon as possible a regulation laying down anti-dumping measures against imports of canned mandarins with which China is flooding the EU.
The EC is currently preparing a new European regulation with anti-dumping measures to take into account a decision made by the Court of Justice of the European Union in which it criticizes the way the Commission calculates anti-dumping tariffs. But meanwhile, the massive influx of imports from China of canned mandarins are having devastating effects for EU producers.
The secretary general of Copa-Cogeca, Pekka Pesonen said that "these imports do not respect the same rules and obligations, or the same food safety standards that apply in the European Union (the differential production costs and labor is very important). For example, in the EU production costs amount to
11-12 Euro/kg FOB, while the cost of Chinese production comes in total Euro 6.30/kg FOB. It's ridiculous to expect European farmers to compete in such conditions of inequality. If this situation persists, factories will have to close and farmers would go bankrupt, thereby causing increased unemployment in rural areas of the EU and deepening the current economic crisis."
Pekka Pesonen then explained that the situation of canned mandarin can not be compared with the textile industry in which anti-dumping measures can be applied at any time of the year. "In the case of canned mandarins, the anti-dumping measures should be applied early in the campaign, ie. in November/December, and we're in the middle of January. If these measures are not introduced immediately with a retroactive effect as of the beginning of the marketing campaign 2012/2013, the regulation will not have any impact. Thus, Copa-Cogeca urges the EU Commission to introduce these measures immediately, otherwise all the processed citrus sector will be in danger," he concluded.
Source: Valenciafruits.com
