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Fri March 29 2024

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Contractors look to Brussels to help ward off Chinese threat

24 Nov 10 Contractors’ organisations have welcomed a European Commission discussion paper on trade as a move towards fairer competition with companies from outside the EU. They hope that firm action will follow.

The European Construction Industry Federation (FIEC) and European International Contractors (EIC) responded jointly to the discussion paper Trade, Growth and World Affairs.

“We are pleased to see that our complaints about unfair competition from third country state-owned companies – in particular Chinese companies – entering the EU public procurement markets have finally been taken seriously”, said FIEC president Luisa Todini. “Now we look forward to seeing specific proposals for trade defence instruments by next summer, as announced by Commissioner [Karel] De Gucht."

EIC president Michel Démarre said: “For us international contractors, the most important aspect is the proposal to set up a mechanism to redress the balance, respecting reciprocity, between open markets in the EU and more closed markets with global trading partners, in particular with China.”

Both presidents expressed confidence that the Commission proposals would contribute to fairer competition, and said that reciprocal market opening was a key element in the fight against protectionism.

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