EU Extends 85% Tariff on Chinese Screws and Bolts to Malaysia

The European Union extended to Malaysia an 85 percent tariff on screws and bolts from China, saying Chinese exporters used the country to evade the levy and undercut EU producers.

The EU said Chinese exporters of iron and steel fasteners shipped them to the 27-nation bloc via Malaysia. The EU imposes duties as high as 85 percent on imports of fasteners that originate in China, a decision that prompted a complaint from the Chinese government. The duty rate depends on the Chinese exporter.

The 85-percent import tax "was circumvented by trans- shipment from Malaysia," the EU said in a decision in Brussels that ends a nine-month investigation. The fasteners, used for everything from automotive parts to furniture, are made in Europe by companies such as Italy's Fontana Luigi SpA.

The EU imposed the trade protection in January 2009 for five years to punish Chinese exporters including Gem-Year Industrial Co. for selling the fasteners in Europe below cost, a practice known as dumping. The duties apply to EU imports that were worth about 575 million euros ($807 million) in 2007.

China filed a complaint over the import taxes at the World Trade Organization in mid-2009. In December 2010, the WTO ruled against aspects of the European duties and gave the EU specific remedies. Last week, the Geneva-based global trade arbiter rejected an appeal that the EU had filed of the December ruling.

Today's EU decision extending the 85 percent anti-dumping duty to Malaysia will take effect after being published in the Official Journal by July 28. The decision exempts eight Malaysian exporters including Chin Well Fasteners Co.,Ltd.