As pressure from China mounts on Europe to lower its trade defenses against Chinese products, commissioners from the 28 member nations will debate whether or not to grant “market economy status” to China in December. Beijing claims that having been a member of the World Trade Organization since 2000, it has a right to the status, however granting it would make it much more difficult to impose anti-dumping duties and penalties against China, and a major European study indicates that the EU stands to lose up to 3.5 million jobs if trade defenses against China are removed.
