Protectionist measures from US, EU to be assessed: MOFCOM

China will seriously evaluate the effects caused by protectionist practices by the US and EU and take relevant measures if necessary to defend domestic enterprises’ interests, said a senior official at China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on Monday.

China fully understands the motivation that the EU has to take some necessary measures in order to grapple with the US tariffs on steel and aluminum products, said Wang Hejun, head of the ministry’s trade remedy and investigation bureau, according to a statement posted on MOFCOM’s website.

However, Wang said, it would not be the right choice for the EU to launch trade protectionist measures, as it would only intensify the international chaos and panic that the US tariffs have already caused.

“It will have a serious impact on the normal international trade order… China hopes the EU will take a discreet view about adopting such measures,” Wang noted.

The MOFCOM comment came after the EU initiated a “safeguard” investigation concerning imports of steel products on Monday with the aim of assessing whether the US tariffs will result in steel previously bound for the US flooding into the EU instead.

The US recently announced 25 percent tariff on steel and 10 percent on aluminum imports.

“The information currently available to the European Commission, including the surveillance measures in place, has revealed that imports of certain steel products have recently increased sharply, showing that there is sufficient evidence that these trends in imports appear to call for safeguard measures,” according to a document posted in the Official Journal of the EU on Monday.