The European Commission launched anti-dumping investigations on high tenacity polyester yarn made in China and other countries and regions; this is the first trade remedy investigation on Chinese textiles since the end of 2008 when the China-EU textile agreement expired.

The focus of the case is the establishment of industry-standard country. The European Union has chosen the United States as a market economy of the industry-standard in its notice of the file. If the United States would really be chosen as the industry standard, then the possibility of Chinese enterprises being charged by 30% to 50% anti-dumping duty will be greatly increased, said Said Zheng Jun Lin, the Secretary-General of China Chemical Fiber Association. After all, production cost of the United States is much higher than China. This will undoubtedly increase negative factors for Chinese enterprises, but there is still a trace of turning point.

40 Chinese mainland enterprises are involved in the case, which involves more than US$100 million. European Commission will generally provide a preliminary ruling within 9 months after the establishment of the file.

The complaint was raised by the European Association of man-made fibers on behalf of three European companies, these three companies form more than 60% share of EU total production of high tenacity polyester yarn. Allegations of the complaining party state that export volume of Chinese products to Europe increased from 2800 tons in 2004 to 51,400 tons in 2008, market share of Chinese products in European market promoted from 1.2% to 22.4% in 2008.

According to statistics of the Mainland, product exports from the Mainland China to Europe marked about US $1.24 billion in 2008, an increase of 33% year on year.