06   Agosto   2015

International commerce

Confindustria Ceramica welcomes the question put to the European Commission regarding Chinese antidumping and the TTIP agreement

The Italian ceramic industry warmly welcomes the question for written answer put to the European Commission by MEPs Damiano Zoffoli, Nicola Danti and Simona Bonafè regarding antidumping rules on imports of ceramic products produced in third countries and the TTIP agreement aimed at creating a free trade area between the United States and the European Union.

Following the application of antidumping duties to compensate for unfair trading practices, imports of Chinese ceramic tiles to Europe have fallen by 63% since the peak of 2010, reaching 23 million square metres in April 2015. The second part of the MEPs’ question is equally important and concerns the American market, which generates more than 500 million euros a year for the Italian tile industry alone and is displaying particularly dynamic growth rates. They ask what concrete measures are to be negotiated regarding the European disadvantage in terms of import tariffs, harmonisation of technical standards and “often discriminatory customs controls”.

“The ceramic tile industry is an excellence of our region and an important source of employment, so it must be protected,” argued Damiano Zoffoli, first signatory of the question. “The antidumping measures introduced in 2011 have enabled the market to withstand the competition of products imported from other markets with different production rules, especially from China. For this reason my colleagues Danti and Bonafè and I have been working to ensure that European trade rules will continue in this direction after 2016. Likewise we must ensure that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreements contain concrete measures to facilitate entry into the currently highly restrictive US market. For our part we are willing to do everything that is necessary.”

“The action of MEPs Zoffoli, Danti and Bonafè with respect to two key issues for our industry, namely Chinese antidumping rules and the TTIP agreement, is a timely and very important initiative,” commented Confindustria Ceramica Chairman Vittorio Borelli. “For a sector like the Italian ceramic industry which generates more than 84% of its sales abroad, the issue of fair trade is crucially important for its continued development. The most important goals for this purpose are to renew the measures coming up for expiry and to refuse to grant market economy status to China, which would undermine the effectiveness of the antidumping measures. It is likewise essential that Europe’s institutions take an active stance in respect of these issues and offer their support to the Italian tile industry, which is one of the strongest and most representative sectors of Italian industry worldwide.”