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The EU has threatened to restrict access to Chinese medical devices after finding Beijing has been discriminating against the bloc’s manufacturers in bids for public contracts in the same field.
The findings, which say Chinese policies force hospitals to choose domestic suppliers, follows a months-long investigation under new EU legislation seeking to prise open overseas procurement markets.
Maroš Šefčovič, EU trade commissioner, said he was seeking talks with Beijing over the issue. But a failure to resolve the issue could lead to Brussels restricting access to EU contracts for Chinese companies for five years.
“While we continue to prioritise dialogue as a first step to finding solutions, we stand ready to take decisive action to defend the level playing field, and support fair competition,” he said.
The report risks increasing trade tensions between Brussels and Beijing, In October, the EU levied tariffs of up to 45 per cent on Chinese electric vehicles and opened several antidumping and anti-subsidy investigations. China responded with antidumping tariffs on brandy and investigations into pork and dairy products.
While EU imports of Chinese-made devices doubled between 2015-23, the commission said Chinese policies forced hospitals to choose domestic suppliers.
For the first time Brussels used its International Procurement Instrument, a legislative measure adopted in 2022, in pursuing the probe. If talks proposed by Šefčovič fail to reach an agreement it could reduce or deny access to its own market.
“Any measure adopted under the IPI has to be specific and based on the principles of proportionality and efficiency, while considering any possible supply issues,” a commission statement said.
Its report said high-performance medical devices were one of the 10 core industries identified in Beijing’s “Made in China 2025” strategy.
There are specific targets for the share of domestically produced high-end medical devices procured by Chinese hospitals, of 50 per cent by 2020, 70 per cent by 2025 and 95 per cent by 2030, the report found.
It also cited a lack of transparency, with less than a tenth of 380,000 procurement tenders on medical devices between January 2017 and May 31 2024 giving eligibility criteria in accessible form.
Of those, 87 per cent contained “direct and indirect discrimination” including prohibiting imported medical devices.
After consultations with Beijing, the commission said it had to act. But Šefčovič added that it “strongly wishes to maintain open, fair and mutually beneficial trade relations with China, including on public procurement”.
Commission officials said China had offered to negotiate a bilateral procurement agreement giving mutual access, but it was not a solution to the problem being investigated.
