Share this page!

Finbarr Bermingham Profile picture
Twitter logo
Feb 10 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
🚨SCOOP 🚨

As well as beef, China has also banned dairy and alcohol products from Lithuania, claiming Vilnius has not met compliance requirements for beef and dairy.

Claims Lithuanian companies "arbitrarily" tampered with beer labelling

scmp.com/economy/china-…
Letter from Chinese customs to Lithuania’s State Food and Veterinary Services says Lithuanian beer companies "arbitrarily change production date & expiry date", accused of "counterfeiting"

"Lithuanian authorities don't pay attention to it which makes this risk more serious” ImageImage
Formalises an unofficial ban on certain products which had been in place since late last year.

In December 2021, there were zero imports of dairy, beef or alcohol products from Lithuania, per Chinese customs stats.

There wasn't a huge amount in first place, but all gone now
Compare to Chinese customs stats from Dec 2020:

- $415,597 of skinless boneless beef
- $317,472 of beer made from malt
- $51,677 of sparkling wine
- $35,774 of rum
- $137,020 of powdered or grated cheese
- $91,080 of milk and cream

All to zero a year later.
The backdrop to this: the EU and China are about to start talks ahead of a WTO case, in which Brussels has accused Beijing of breaking global trade rules in its unofficial embargo on Lithuanian goods.

scmp.com/news/china/dip…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Finbarr Bermingham

Finbarr Bermingham Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @fbermingham

Finbarr Bermingham Profile picture
Jan 28
German far right MEP @KrahMax gave an interview to Chinese state news portal Guancha.cn, a few excerpts below, run through translate.

The broad takeaway, "the more liberal a party is in the sense of “woke”, the more it is anti-China."

m.guancha.cn/MaximilianKrah…
On "woke" politics and the deterioration in Western-Chinese relations...
On the CAI and complaints over perceived US hijacking of the investment deal

"When the United States competes with China and Russia, it needs Europe to be its sidekick, so the Americans have mobilized their own network of relationships."
Read 7 tweets
Finbarr Bermingham Profile picture
Jan 27
As we reported last night the EU has now filed its WTO case vs China.

Details in this thread, but here's the letter the EU sent to China's WTO ambassador to request the consultation ImageImageImageImage
At a press conference this morning, EU trade commissioner Dombrovskis says that the WTO case will be dropped if China responds positively to requests to drop the coercion
He is hopeful that the anti-coercion instrument's legislative process can be concluded this year under the French and Czech presidencies of the EU
Read 9 tweets
Finbarr Bermingham Profile picture
Jan 26
NEW!

EU to imminently launch WTO case against China over economic coercion campaign against Lithuania

scmp.com/news/china/dip…
EU spent the past month interviewing Lithuanian businesses who had been blocked from Chinese market, after the government in Vilnius permitted the opening of a "Taiwanese Representative Office" in the capital.

EU feels it has gathered enough evidence to make a case in Geneva.
A request for consultation will be lodged. China may or may not enter bilateral talks with Brussels. It will then go to a dispute settlement panel

Both parties are signatories to the MPIA, alternative to the defunct appellate body, so this one can't be appealed into the void.
Read 18 tweets
Finbarr Bermingham Profile picture
Jan 25
EU DG trade @WeyandSabine has just presented to the @EP_Trade committee on a proposed forced labour ban, which would of course have serious impact on China, given issues in Xinjiang.

Some takeaways 🧵
Weyand and EC seem keen to avoid the US model, which combines product-based bans with origin bans.

So in the case of Xinjiang, cotton products linked to Xinjiang, and also just Xinjiang products in general.

scmp.com/news/china/art…
She described this as "ineffective".

The "rebuttable assumption" places "a heavy burden" on the importer, which has to prove that it has no traces of forced labour in any product it imports that may have connection to the region and its cotton + other goods
Read 18 tweets
Finbarr Bermingham Profile picture
Jan 24
French trade minister @franckriester has addressed the European Parliament's trade committee about France's EU presidency.

A few takeaways, looking from the perspective of EU-China trade relations.
On Taiwan: he said Taipei is a "very important partner" and the French presidency will "continue to deepen the relationship".

They will "follow closely" what the commission intends in this space, but there are "no ongoing negotiations"

(EC has no plans for BIA with Taiwan)
Lithuania: the EU will be requesting consultations at the WTO and "we support that", re Chinese coercion.

This is "further evidence of the importance of having independent anti-coercion legislation".

"Lithuania will be discussed in the work of the Council in next few months"
Read 11 tweets
Finbarr Bermingham Profile picture
Oct 21, 2021
🚨NEW🚨

Chinese ambassador to the European Union Zhang Ming urged European Parliament President @DavidSassoli to “leverage” his role to sway opinion on landmark Taiwan vote

scmp.com/news/china/dip…
“I hope that you can leverage your role to enable the Parliament to fully appreciate the seriousness and sensitivity of the Taiwan issue and play a positive and constructive role in upholding the political foundation of China-EU relations,” he wrote in a letter dated August 31
He said the report was a “rather negative document” and warned that its recommendations would “constitute serious violations of the one-China principle"
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @fbermingham has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @fbermingham!

Read all threads by @fbermingham

:(