Chinese firms hit with more trade barriers in 2024 by developing nations

Chinese authorities revealed that more developing countries initiated trade investigations targeting Chinese goods last year, with analysts suggesting these actions included preemptive measures to avoid a potential influx of imports from the manufacturing giant.

Despite China's robust export activity in 2024, Caliber.Az reports citing Chinese media that the country faced a record number of trade barriers as growing concerns over its production overcapacity prompted more countries to act. A total of 160 trade investigations were launched against Chinese products, a significant increase from 69 cases in 2023. These figures were provided based on calculations from China Trade Remedies Information, a platform under the Ministry of Commerce.

They exclude the prominent European Union probe into Chinese electric vehicles announced in October 2023. According to the article, cases involving both anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations by the same country on the same products were treated as single instances. When including cases where China was one of multiple investigated nations, the total rose to 169 from 79 the previous year.

In 2024, 28 trading partners initiated investigations into Chinese imports, compared to 18 in 2023. This included more developing countries, such as Thailand, Peru, and Pakistan, which joined the list of nations expressing concerns.

Liang Yan, an economist at the American Willamette University, noted that many of these investigations were precautionary actions by developing nations which sought to mitigate the risk of increased Chinese imports, fearing that China's exports previously directed to the United States might be redirected to their markets and beat local producers with low prices.

By Nazrin Sadigova