A key report published on Tuesday (14 January highlights what it calls continued discrimination against EU medical devices in China’s public procurement market.
The report will feed into the EU Commission’s assessment on what measures should be taken to restore the EU-China level playing field in this area.
The EC says that the report, which outlines the main findings of an inquiry under the EU’s International Procurement Instrument (IPI), presents clear evidence of China limiting the access of EU medical devices producers to its government contracts in an unfair and discriminatory way.
The EU says it remains committed to engaging China in a constructive dialogue aimed at addressing and eliminating the discriminatory measures.
A spokesman added, “However, in the absence of an acceptable solution, the Commission will now carefully assess the possibility of adopting IPI measures. If it finds that such measures are in the EU interest, they could include a restriction on, or exclusion of, Chinese bidders of government contracts in the EU.”
The report concludes that China has put in place “several different forms of direct and indirect discrimination against EU medical devices and suppliers, resulting in a serious and recurrent impairment of their access to this market across the entire territory of China.”
It goes on, “This discrimination affects all medical devices categories.”
The EU public procurement market is one of the largest and most accessible in the world.
Brussels says that Chinese exports of medical devices towards the EU experienced a surge of more than 100% between 2015 and 2023, demonstrating the overall openness of the EU market.
