Brussels, Jan. 27, (dpa/GNA) – The European Union has opened a case against China at the World Trade Organization for hindering trade with Lithuania in retaliation for deepening ties with Taiwan.
“Let me be clear, these measures are a threat to the integrity of the EU single market. They affect the entire EU trade and EU supply chains,” European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said upon announcing the move on Thursday.
The bloc’s top trade official said Chinese customs were blocking Lithuanian imports, with pharmaceuticals, lasers, electronics and food particularly effected.
Chinese official statistics showed a 91-per-cent drop in trade from Lithuania in December 2021 compared to December 2020, Dombrovskis told reporters in Brussels.
He also accused Beijing of pressuring multinational companies to stop using Lithuanian components in production with the threat of import restrictions.
The Baltic EU state has been building up its diplomatic and economic ties with Taiwan of late, prompting China to shut Lithuania out of its customs system in December.
Beijing regards Taiwan – which has been governed separately from the mainland since 1949 – as a breakaway province rather than an independent state.
A spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the EU’s allegations were “unfounded and contradict the facts.”
Zhao Lijian said the dispute was political, not economic, and that it was a “bilateral matter” between China and Lithuania that did not concern Brussels.
Lithuania should “get back on the right path” and stick to the One China policy, according to which Taiwan is only a breakaway province that belongs to China, he said.
GNA