I’m sure the EU is exerting is enormous political pressure right now, to make Lithuania back down.
“Mr. Worldwide
Lithuania said on Friday that China had blocked all imports from the Baltic state in an escalation of a diplomatic dispute over relations with Taiwan.
Vilnius said Beijing had delisted it as a country of origin, which meant goods cannot clear customs, and was rejecting all import applications.
Beijing downgraded diplomatic ties with Lithuania and suspended consular services there after the country permitted a Taiwanese Representative Office to open in November.
China considers Taiwan to be part of its territory.
Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuanian foreign minister, denounced the “unannounced sanctions” on Friday and said Lithuania would ask the European Commission for help. It was “unprecedented when one EU member state is being partially sanctioned”, he said.
The country exported €300m worth of goods to China in 2020, less than 1 per cent of its total exports.
“We have been informed that Lithuanian shipments are not being cleared through Chinese customs and import applications are being rejected. We are in contact with Vilnius and the EU Delegation in Beijing in order to collect all possible information and clarify the situation,” the commission said.
The move comes days before Brussels proposes a law allowing it to retaliate against such economic sanctions.
The anti-coercion instrument, to be agreed by the commission on Wednesday, would allow the EU to retaliate more swiftly against the measures and US action against companies trading with Cuba and Iran.
However, it faces opposition from several EU members which fear it could breach international rules and damage global trade. The 27 EU members and the European parliament must back the law before it comes into force.
Estonia and Japan have lodged public objections, along with business lobbies in Denmark and Sweden. Their governments were also sceptical, diplomats said.
Tokyo said the instrument could break World Trade Organization rules, a concern shared by some EU capitals.
“Deterring/counteractions themselves may have a potential inconsistency with the WTO Agreement as a prohibited unilateral measure,” Tokyo told the EU in a consultation on the proposal in March.
Estonia demanded that “the proposed instrument must be fully in line with WTO rules” in its submission. “The cornerstone of EU trade policy is its compatibility with the multilateral rules-based trading system, embodied by the rules of the WTO.”
EU diplomats said Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Italy and the Czech Republic had concerns about the plan.
“It is not clear to us that the problem is large enough to justify the proposal,” said Sweden in a letter to the commission seen by the FT. “If implemented, this instrument would likely have a significant economic impact on trade, businesses, and on the relations between the EU and other countries.”
Why are Lithuanians such pussies? Show some spine for fuck sake. If you can’t take a punch don’t start a fight.
It was stupid of lithuania to start am fight with the world power China in the first place. Now they have to live with the concequenses.
The headline is a bit overstated. We for sure know what we are doing. The “being surprised” is almost sarcastic from our FM. We just test the waters with EU. Will they stand up to us? Or to China. Time will tell.
What did they expect?
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Doesnt Lithuanian goverment not have russia to annoy…It just seems like a weird out of the blue decision to antagonize china and I dont see any benifit to it.
For the love of god Lithuania don’t bend to China
I thought Lithuania wanted to decouple from China, already crying?
Can not trust Xi Jinping’s China. Wake up.
Totally expected result. China has long proven itself to use economic attacks whenever someone disagree with their political line, with Australia as a prime example. It remains to be seen how would EU react in this situation, as China has a lot of economic leverages with some EU countries (Greece for example).
12 comments
I’m sure the EU is exerting is enormous political pressure right now, to make Lithuania back down.
“Mr. Worldwide
Lithuania said on Friday that China had blocked all imports from the Baltic state in an escalation of a diplomatic dispute over relations with Taiwan.
Vilnius said Beijing had delisted it as a country of origin, which meant goods cannot clear customs, and was rejecting all import applications.
Beijing downgraded diplomatic ties with Lithuania and suspended consular services there after the country permitted a Taiwanese Representative Office to open in November.
China considers Taiwan to be part of its territory.
Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuanian foreign minister, denounced the “unannounced sanctions” on Friday and said Lithuania would ask the European Commission for help. It was “unprecedented when one EU member state is being partially sanctioned”, he said.
The country exported €300m worth of goods to China in 2020, less than 1 per cent of its total exports.
“We have been informed that Lithuanian shipments are not being cleared through Chinese customs and import applications are being rejected. We are in contact with Vilnius and the EU Delegation in Beijing in order to collect all possible information and clarify the situation,” the commission said.
The move comes days before Brussels proposes a law allowing it to retaliate against such economic sanctions.
The anti-coercion instrument, to be agreed by the commission on Wednesday, would allow the EU to retaliate more swiftly against the measures and US action against companies trading with Cuba and Iran.
However, it faces opposition from several EU members which fear it could breach international rules and damage global trade. The 27 EU members and the European parliament must back the law before it comes into force.
Estonia and Japan have lodged public objections, along with business lobbies in Denmark and Sweden. Their governments were also sceptical, diplomats said.
Tokyo said the instrument could break World Trade Organization rules, a concern shared by some EU capitals.
“Deterring/counteractions themselves may have a potential inconsistency with the WTO Agreement as a prohibited unilateral measure,” Tokyo told the EU in a consultation on the proposal in March.
Estonia demanded that “the proposed instrument must be fully in line with WTO rules” in its submission. “The cornerstone of EU trade policy is its compatibility with the multilateral rules-based trading system, embodied by the rules of the WTO.”
EU diplomats said Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Italy and the Czech Republic had concerns about the plan.
“It is not clear to us that the problem is large enough to justify the proposal,” said Sweden in a letter to the commission seen by the FT. “If implemented, this instrument would likely have a significant economic impact on trade, businesses, and on the relations between the EU and other countries.”
Why are Lithuanians such pussies? Show some spine for fuck sake. If you can’t take a punch don’t start a fight.
It was stupid of lithuania to start am fight with the world power China in the first place. Now they have to live with the concequenses.
The headline is a bit overstated. We for sure know what we are doing. The “being surprised” is almost sarcastic from our FM. We just test the waters with EU. Will they stand up to us? Or to China. Time will tell.
What did they expect?
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Doesnt Lithuanian goverment not have russia to annoy…It just seems like a weird out of the blue decision to antagonize china and I dont see any benifit to it.
For the love of god Lithuania don’t bend to China
I thought Lithuania wanted to decouple from China, already crying?
Can not trust Xi Jinping’s China. Wake up.
Totally expected result. China has long proven itself to use economic attacks whenever someone disagree with their political line, with Australia as a prime example. It remains to be seen how would EU react in this situation, as China has a lot of economic leverages with some EU countries (Greece for example).