CHINA HAS HIT back at an EU ban on Chinese firms from major medical equipment purchases with a similar bar on European companies in the latest trade salvo between the two economies.

China’s finance ministry said in a statement that European Union companies, with the exception of “those with European capital established in China, will have to be excluded” from orders of more than 45 million yuan (€5.3 million).

China’s ban, which comes into effect from today, covers a wide range of products, from prosthetic devices and parts to medical machinery and surgical instruments.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited the EU’s headquarters, as well as France and Germany, over the past week in a bid to improve relations with the 27-member bloc.

However, deep frictions remain over economic ties, including a yawning trade deficit reaching into hundred of billions of euro between China and the EU.

Beijing’s finance ministry also specified that the proportion of products from the EU could not exceed 50 percent in bids from non-European companies.

The EU drew an angry response from Beijing, and an accusation of double standards, when it banned Chinese firms from government medical device purchases worth more than five million euros ($5.8 million) in retaliation for limits Beijing places on access to its own market.

The European Commission said at the time the ban was a reaction to “China’s longstanding exclusion of EU-made medical devices from Chinese government contracts”.

According to Brussels, just under 90 percent of public procurement contracts for medical devices in China “were subject to exclusionary and discriminatory measures” against EU firms.

“China has repeatedly expressed, through bilateral dialogue, its willingness to resolve these disputes appropriately through consultations, dialogue and bilateral arrangements in the field of public procurement,” China’s commerce ministry said in a separate statement.

Over the last three years, Brussels and Beijing have come into conflict in a number of economic sectors, including electric cars, the rail industry, solar panels and wind turbines.

With reporting by  © AFP 2023