EU plywood dumping probe opens new front in China trade dispute

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The EU is launching an anti-dumping investigation into cheap plywood imports after complaints by the bloc’s domestic producers, opening another front in its trade conflict with China.

EU producers say there has been a surge in cheap hardwood plywood coming from China, much of which they believe originates in Russia. Brussels banned Russian wood imports after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The probe follows the EU’s imposition of tariffs of up to 45 per cent on Chinese electric vehicles last week. China responded to that with provisional tariffs on EU brandy exports and had already opened anti-dumping probes into pork and dairy products,

The move has sparked fears by EU member states of an extended cycle of retaliatory moves on important products, while China argues the EU is being protectionist. As tensions heighten, the two sides have also filed multiple challenges to the other’s trade defence measures at the World Trade Organization.

“This investigation is crucial to protect the entire EU hardwood plywood value chain,” said the Woodstock Consortium, which represents forest owners, loggers and suppliers to producers. “Unfairly priced Chinese imports — now apparently also using cheap conflict Russian timber that is banned in the EU — threaten the survival of many European businesses and jobs.”

Lightweight. durable and made from trees such as beech, birch and poplar, layered hardwood plywood panels are used in roofs, walls and floors, as well as furniture, cars and ships. Capable of enduring very low temperatures, plywood products also line the holds of supercooled liquefied natural gas tankers.

The main EU producers are in Poland, Finland, France and the Baltic states. Woodstock says the industry employs 10,000 people.

The EU has already put tariffs on birch plywood imports from Kazakhstan and Turkey after finding they included some Russian content. 

New EU rules to prevent companies dodging tariffs by stockpiling during the investigation, which could take almost a year, will be used for the first time.

All imports of Chinese goods will have to be registered at EU borders. If the EU decides to levy tariffs, they would then be applied retroactively.

The EU imported about 750.000 cubic metres of hardwood plywood worth €327mn in 2023, according to Eurostat figures.

That accounted for more than half of the bloc’s imports and 30 per cent of the total EU market.

Several other countries including the US, Morocco, Turkey and South Korea have already placed punitive tariffs on Chinese wood imports. 

Brussels has condemned China for subsidising industries and exporting its overcapacity in manufactured goods below cost, opening more than a dozen investigations into products including tin plate, glue and monosodium glutamate.

Alicia García Herrero, senior fellow at the Brussels-based Bruegel think-tank, said the EU’s fractured single market meant its companies could not compete with Chinese rivals.

With Beijing expanding into industries the EU used to lead, the bloc will be forced to protect them.

“The European Commission’s duties on Chinese electric vehicles signal that the time in which China-EU relations were governed by engagement is over,” she said. “China and the EU now compete with the same type of products on third markets. It is more important than ever that the rules of the game are fair.”