A European country slightly larger than the state of West Virginia has struck another blow to China. The EU has launched a case against the Chinese government at the World Trade Organization on behalf of Lithuania.
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China has been blocking imports from Lithuania and imposing other economic restrictions on trade in retaliation for allowing Taiwan to open a diplomatic outpost in Vilnius. Beijing does not recognize Taiwan as an independent state and considers it an integral part of China.
The dispute has been ongoing since July 2020, when matters seem to have come to a head. "After repeated failed attempts to resolve the issue bilaterally, we see no other way forward than to request WTO dispute settlement consultations with China," said EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis in a statement.
While Beijing has harshly condemned the move, the EU is providing evidence of "a refusal to clear Lithuanian goods through customs, rejection of import applications from Lithuania, and pressuring EU companies operating out of other EU member states to remove Lithuanian inputs from their supply chains."
