European Union Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis (Valdis Dombrovskis) warned in an interview published on Friday (December 24) that China’s blockade of Lithuanian exports due to the Taiwan dispute is increasingly affecting other European Unions. National company.
Donbrowskis told the German Le Monde that the committee had been able to verify Lithuania’s statement about the blockade.
He said: “This worries us. We are increasingly receiving reports from other member states that China has also been blocked from importing.”
“Obviously, if goods from other EU countries contain parts from Lithuania, China Customs will not process these goods.”
Eastbrovskys said that there are now “a lot of cases showing that imports from Lithuania and the European Union have been intercepted at Chinese ports, and the number is increasing every day”.
He said that the blockade seemed to affect both large and small shipments.
“Given the huge daily trade volume between the EU and China, it is not surprising that the volume has grown rapidly,” he said.
Eastbrovskys said that the European Commission is using political and diplomatic channels to try to resolve the dispute, and he has directly talked with China’s EU envoy on the matter.
But if these efforts fail, he said his staff are preparing to lodge a complaint with the World Trade Organization.
“We prefer to solve this problem amicably, which is obvious,” he said, adding that “we must prepare for these failures.”
Last month, China downgraded diplomatic relations with Lithuania and stopped issuing visas to Lithuania in protest against Vilnius’s decision to allow Taiwan to open a representative office in its own name.
Beijing refuses to formally use the term “Taiwan” to avoid bringing international legitimacy to the island, which China considers part of its territory.
This month, several Lithuanian companies and business leaders complained that China blocked their exports because their goods were not cleared in the country.
