The European Parliament, in a report on Trade and Economic Relations with China after China’s accession to the World Trade Organization estimated that China ‘s nontariff barriers towards the EU are annually worth more than 20 billion Euro in terms of lost business opportunities to EU companies. China placed major obstacles in the way of European firms wishing to do business in China in order to protect its own industry, the lawmakers said. The parliament’s Rapporteur and Vice-Chairwoman of the Committee on International Trade, Corien Wortmann-Kool of the Netherlands, said: “China is very creative in inventing non-tariff barriers.

It is virtually impossible for EU companies to operate in their public procurement market, whilst the EU public procurement market, currently worth some €1900 billion, is already largely open to Chinese companies. My report calls for a level playing field on both sides in this matter and we want more EU presence and assistance, especially for SMEs.” Besides the non-tariff barriers, another major problem is the poor quality standard of some Chinese products, she said. Wortmann-Kool continued: “In 2007, we faced major problems regarding unsafe toys. The scale of the production of counterfeiting and pirated goods inside China is alarmingly high and we recently witnessed the scandal of polluted baby milk powder. This must be stopped.”