Vice President of the European Commission for Enterprise and Industry Gunter Verheugen complained against China's restrictions on the auto market and threatened to take the issue to the World Trade Organization if China would not take actions to improve that.

China Business Times today says Verheugen made the remarks when the roadmap for Europe's auto industry was published on Dec.12. Mr. Verheugen is concerned about "unfair treatment" of European carmakers in China, including no permission for solely foreign funded plants, and constraints on foreign shares in a joint venture. He also mentioned protectionism in China's auto market and intellectual property rights infringements encountered by European carmakers.

He thinks it is against the principle of fair competition that China has launched a new policy this year imposing the same rate of tariffs on auto parts as that on cars imported from Europe. He argued that would force European carmakers to buy China-made auto parts.

In the press release the EC confirmed that it would "continue its close monitoring of Chinese business and regulatory developments with a view to assessing the possibility of success at an eventual WTO dispute settlement panel if the existing situation does not improve".

By People's Daily Online