Canada recently announced that it will take action against China’s price manipulation. At the same time, India and the European Union (EU) launched anti-dumping investigations into Chinese products, while the United States is considering a new round of sanctions and tariffs against China-made goods.
On April 23, Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s Finance Minister, said that Canada, along with other countries in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network, will actively take measures to tackle the issue of price manipulation by countries like China on critical metals.
The Five Eyes is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the United States.
Ms. Freeland said that Canada and its allies believe that nickel and other rare earth minerals are flooding the international market due to dumping, with prices even lower than domestic prices in some producing countries, aiming to push Canadian companies and companies in allied nations out of the international market. She emphasized that economic security must be part of national security.
In 2018, the United States compiled a list of 35 mineral commodities critical to the economy and national security, with China being the largest supplier of 13 minerals and the primary producer of 20 minerals.
Currently, China controls approximately 95 percent of the global rare earth supply and produces three-quarters of the lithium battery cells globally.
Starting from the Trump administration, the United States has been pressuring China on issues such as product dumping and has implemented sanctions through measures such as tariff increases. Unfair trade has been one of the main topics of discussion during visits by Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to China.
EU’s Anti-dumping Investigation
On Dec. 7, 2023, the China Coating Industry Association Titanium Dioxide Industry Branch revealed that the EU had launched an anti-dumping investigation on Chinese-made titanium dioxide.Previously, the European Commission announced that, given the complaint filed by the European Titanium Dioxide Ad Hoc Coalition in September 2023, the EU officially launched an anti-dumping probe against China on Nov. 13, 2023, investigating the damage caused to EU-related industries due to China’s dumping practice.
The complainant organization stated that over the past few years, Chinese-made titanium dioxide has been dumped into the EU market, harming EU producers.
They estimated that Chinese-made titanium dioxide was between 45 percent and 65 percent cheaper than the international market price, leading to several factories in Europe having to shut down and increasing the EU’s reliance on imported critical metals. Therefore, the organization hopes to limit the share of Chinese-made titanium dioxide in the EU market to no more than 10 percent, or even lower, through anti-dumping measures.
Currently, apart from China, there are only around a dozen titanium dioxide producers worldwide, with a total annual production capacity of about 3.5 million metric tons. China’s total production capacity in 2023 was approximately 6.1 million metric tons, accounting for 64 percent of the global total, ranking first in the world for over a decade.
India’s Response
On March 28, India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry announced that, in response to applications submitted by domestic companies, anti-dumping investigations have been initiated on more than a dozen products originating from or imported from China, including titanium dioxide. The investigation period is from October 2022 to September 2023.India is the country with the most anti-dumping measures against China in the world. From 1995 to 2023, there were a total of 1,614 anti-dumping cases against China globally, with the top three countries and regions being India with 298 cases, the United States with 189 cases, and the EU with 155 cases.
In India, anti-dumping measures are mainly against three industries in China, the chemical industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and the nonmetallic minerals industry.
US Concerns and Responses
The United States is also taking anti-dumping measures against China, aiming to contain the CCP’s behavior of ignoring international rules and disrupting the existing international order.China’s manufacturing sector has grown rapidly in the first two months of this year, which will inevitably lead to further excess capacity and massive dumping into the international market. In the last year alone, China’s solar panel production increased by 54 percent, according to the CCP’s official reports.
Taking solar panels as an example, due to the extremely low prices of Chinese-made solar panels, some in Europe are even using them as garden fences. This has led to the disappearance of Europe’s solar energy industry.
Before Mr. Blinken’s visit to China on April 24, there were reports that due to China’s support for Russia, the United States was drafting sanctions to cut off some Chinese banks from the global financial system. Mr. Blinken’s visit to China this time was likely a warning to the CCP.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative announced on April 17 that it will launch a Section 301 investigation into unfair trade practices in China’s shipbuilding, logistics, and maritime industries to gain global dominance. It was reported that the CCP provided subsidies to China’s shipbuilding industry totaling $132 billion from 2010 to 2018.
To break free from dependence on the rare-earths supply chain controlled by China, the United States has invested nearly $200 million in various rare-earths projects since 2020.
Furthermore, on April 16, Patent and Trademark Office Director Kathi Vidal said that intellectual property rights continue to be a major area of concern for American businesses in China. There have been long-term disputes surrounding technology transfer, trade secrets, malicious trademarks, counterfeiting, online piracy, and geographical indications.
