EU to investigate China’s medical devices market

The EU yesterday announced a probe into China’s medical devices market, prompting an immediate accusation from Beijing that the bloc was engaging in “protectionism.”

Brussels fears China is favoring its own suppliers when it comes to the procurement of medical devices. The EU’s official administrative journal, announcing the probe, set out ways that could be happening, including through a “Buy China” policy.

The EU also has concerns that China might have restrictions on imports as well as imposing conditions “leading to abnormally low bids that cannot be sustained by profit-oriented companies,” the notice in the journal said.

Beijing lashed out at the investigation, with Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) saying it would “damage the EU’s image.”

“All the outside world sees is it [the EU] gradually moving towards protectionism,” Wang said, calling on Brussels to “stop using any excuse to groundlessly suppress and restrict Chinese business.”

China’s medical devices market is the second largest after the US, worth about 135 billion euros (US$144 billion) in 2022, according to a report by China-focused think tank Mercator Institute for China Studies last year.

The EU probe is the first under the bloc’s International Procurement Instrument which seeks to promote reciprocity in access to international public procurement markets.

“The ... restrictive measures and practices put at a significant and systemic disadvantage Union [EU] economic operators, goods and services as they systematically favor the procurement of domestic products to the detriment of imported ones,” the official journal said.

If the investigation finds unfair behavior by China, the EU can limit Chinese companies’ access to the 27-nation bloc’s public procurement market.

The investigation is to conclude within nine months, although the European Commission can extend this by another five months, the journal said.

Beijing is “invited to submit its views and to provide relevant information” and can hold consultations with the European Commission — the EU’s trade authority — “to eliminate or remedy the alleged measures and practices,” the text said.

Brussels has launched a wave of investigations targeting China over the past few months, looking into green tech subsidies, and the EU also provoked Beijing’s ire earlier this month after announcing an investigation into Chinese wind turbine suppliers.

Other probes have focused on Chinese subsidies for solar panels, electric vehicles and trains as Brussels seeks to move away from excessive reliance on cheaper Chinese technology.

The latest investigation was announced after German authorities arrested an aide to a far-right German Member of the European Parliament Maximilian Krah on suspicion of spying for China.

On Tuesday, the commission announced surprise raids were carried out in the EU offices of an unidentified company that makes and sells “security equipment” as part of a probe into foreign subsidies.

The Chinese chamber of commerce in the EU denounced the raids in the Netherlands and Poland.