World / Europe EU to challenge both China and US at WTO, showing it is not ‘choosing sides’ BL PREMIUM

Brussels — The EU says it will complain to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) about China’s technology-transfer practices, in a surprise move that adds to US political pressure on Beijing. On the same day it filed a WTO complaint over US metal tariffs, the EU said it was turning to the global trade arbiter to challenge Chinese intellectual-property legislation that forces European companies going to China to grant ownership or usage rights to local entities. China already faces the threat of US duties on as much as $150bn of Chinese goods sold in the American market as a result of alleged intellectual property (IP) theft. "We are challenging today both the US and China at the WTO and it demonstrates that we are not choosing any sides," EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told reporters on Friday in Brussels. "We stand for the multilateral system, for rules-based global trade." The EU complaints against China and the US highlight political cross currents that are buffeting the gl...