EU resumes WTO case against China over Lithuania coercion

The European Union will restart its World Trade Organization case against China regarding the alleged economic coercion of Lithuania, News.az reports citing South China Morning Post.

The bloc’s executive arm, the European Commission, said on Friday it had requested a resumption at the Geneva trade courts, ending a week of speculation over whether it would let the suit expire.

The case was launched in 2022, after a fierce dispute between Vilnius and Beijing over a controversially named “Taiwanese Representative Office” in the tiny Baltic state.

Soon after the office opened, Lithuanian exporters found they could no longer ship products to mainland China. The country’s details had been wiped from the official Chinese customs system.

In November 2021, customs data showed the value of shipments fell by 91.4 per cent compared to a year earlier. The virtual wipeout led the commission, which manages the trade policies of the EU’s 27 member states, to launch a case at the WTO.

News.Az