- Country or region
- China
- Trade topics
- Dispute settlement
- Context
- WTO - Case launched by the EU
- EU exporter
- Lithuania
Summary of the case
Since December 2021, China has applied discriminatory and coercive measures against exports from Lithuania and against exports of EU products containing Lithuanian content. These have included rejections of Lithuanian imports by Chinese customs authorities, import restrictions affecting multinational companies who use inputs from Lithuania and a cut in Chinese exports to Lithuania.
Starting in February 2022 China also suddenly formalised complete import bans on alcohol, beef, dairy, logs, and peat shipped from Lithuania as part of the same group of measures, using phytosanitary arguments for doing so.
When asked for further explanations, China failed to prove that these bans were justified. Chinese customs statistics show that trade from Lithuania to China dropped 80% from January to October 2022 as compared with the previous year.
The European Union filed on 27 January 2022 a dispute settlement case against China at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for these trade restrictive measures. Consultations were held on 14 and 15 March 2022. A request for a panel was filed on 7 December 2022.
Relevant WTO provisions
- Article I:1 of GATT 1994
- Article V:6 of GATT 1994
- Article X:3(a) of GATT 1994
- Article XI:1 of GATT 1994
- Article 7 of the TFA
- Article 10 of the TFA
- Article 2.2 of the SPS Agreement
- Article 2.3 of the SPS Agreement
- Articles 3.1 and 3.2 of the SPS Agreement
- Articles 5.1 and 5.2 of the SPS Agreement
- Article 5.6 of the SPS Agreement
- Article 5.8 of the SPS Agreement
- Article 8 of the SPS Agreement
- Article 8 and Annex C.1(a), (b) and (c) of the SPS Agreement
- Article III:4 of GATT 1994
Status
Panel proceedings
- Consultations requested: 27/01/2022
- Panel requested 07/12/2022