EU opens probe into China’s medical device market

Brussels: The European Union on Wednesday announced a probe into China’s medical devices market, prompting an immediate accusation from Beijing that the bloc was engaging in “protectionism”.

Brussels fears China is favouring its own suppliers when it comes to the procurement of medical devices. The EU’s official administrative journal, announcing the probe, set out ways that could be happening, including through a “Buy China” policy.

The EU also has concerns that China may have restrictions on imports as well as imposing conditions “leading to abnormally low bids that cannot be sustained by profit-oriented companies,” the notice in the journal said.

Beijing lashed out at the investigation, with a foreign ministry spokesman saying it would “damage the EU’s image”.

“All the outside world sees is it (the EU) gradually moving towards protectionism,” said the ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, calling on Brussels to “stop using any excuse to groundlessly suppress and restrict Chinese business”.

China’s medical devices market is the second largest after the United States, worth around €135 billion in 2022 (US$145 billion), according to a 2023 report by China-focused think tank MERICS.

The EU probe is the first under the bloc’s International Procurement Instrument which seeks to promote reciprocity in access to international public procurement markets.

“The … restrictive measures and practices put at a significant and systemic disadvantage (European) Union economic operators, goods and services as they systematically favour the procurement of domestic products to the detriment of imported ones,” the official journal said.