Nine Chinese companies issue a joint declaration
On August 7, 2000, nine cmpanies named Amoysonic, Changhong, TCL, Hisense, Skyworth, Panda, Furi, Donglin Electronics and Huaxing Guangdian Enterprise signed a Joint Declaration, in response to the EU's dumping accusation.
Amoysonic President Guo Zeli, who took the lead, said, "There is still no way to turn, even if you ignore it. We would rather try than die, no matter how much we have to spend. If Chinese industry keeps silent, then our fax machines, mobile phones, computers, as well as every unit of our mature M&E products will probably be rejected by the EU by means of anti-dumping."
Jia Qiang, General Manager of Donglin Electronic Company that produces energy-saving lamps, in order to sign the joint declaration, flew to Beijing on the signing day with his British lawyer in charge of the case. He dashed into the meeting room and signed his name at the last minute. Their energy-saving lamps are facing a latent crisis. Shanghai Philips, also producing energy-saving lamps, has been given market status by the EU, and its products are exported to the EU at a zero tariff rate. If the case fails, the EU will impose an anti-dumping duty up to 44.6% on all the other energy-saving lamp producers in China, which means in a couple of years, China will have only Shanghai Philips as an energy-saving lamp producer.
China should investigate further the anti-dumping case
Obviously the event does not just relate to an industry's export business, but also to the industry's overall competition. Jurist Prof. Wang Weiguo states analytically, that foreign companies attack Chinese companies on the international market, make Chinese industries' overall costs increase, and thus cut their competitiveness on the domestic market. Having no substitute market for their products, Chinese companies cannot but transfer the risk to the home market, whereas multinational companies have a broad international market.
Prof. Wang suggests that the state legislature should introduce a Law Against the Abuse of Anti-dumping, an eye for an eye for the multinational companies attacking Chinese companies on the international market with the excuse of anti-dumping, thus punishing them on the Chinese market. Prof. Wang says, that China's color TV industry has been market oriented long before and can compare to any foreign competitor in reporting statistics, so there is no reason for not recognizing the Chinese market economic status.
Fu Donghui, Lawyer for the VBB Law Firm in Brussels, Belgium, who is assisting the Chinese companies in the EU anti-dumping case, thinks, that China should cope with anti-dumping from foreign companies by means of anti-dumping measures against foreign companies; 100 anti-dumping investigations each year are not many for such a big country. However, since 1997, China has had five such investigations only, one or two each year on average. But for 10 years, the EU has launched 400 anti-dumping cases against China. Before investigating China's dumping of color TVs, the EU, by means of the anti-dumping duty, banned light industrial products from China, including shoes, bags and suitcases, and textiles. Subsequently, it prohibited M&E products from China. According to previous experience, each item of Chinese M&E products, when matured, will face high anti-dumping duties levied by the EU.
According to the news, a relevant department of the Chinese government plus department chiefs number six persons responsible for anti-dumping affairs, whereas the EU has more than 200 persons. The Chinese companies could not find a lawyer to accept an anti-dumping case in the country and have had to hire one in Europe, at enormous cost.
Chinese industries learn international rules and regulations from the case
Amoysonic President Guo Zeli says, that we will balk at no sacrifice, after all we have accumulated precious experience through the case. As a matter of fact, from the very beginning when the case was in preparation, the Chinese companies felt distanced from the rest of the world.
According to Amoysonic's introduction, the companies involved, struggling for market economic status, are all transparent to the EU, having no secrets at all. They must have to provide whatever materials they are required to provide. Amoysonic has encountered this for the first time. A lot of information Amoysonic provides is business confidential. If the information is leaked by the EU officials, the company will suffer irretrievable losses. Fortunately the EU has corresponding legislation.
According to the companies involved, they have never seen the forms that need to be filled out in such a case, and do not know how to fill them out. Some of the companies fill out the forms in Chinese, in expectation that the EU officials can read Chinese. They had to do it again later, changing them all into English.
Prof. Wang Weiguo thinks that whether they succeed or fail, this experience is accumulation for Chinese companies' basic work, as such a case will occur frequently in the future, and then we will know how to cope with the developed countries.