They are often tiny - and yet they have the potential to undermine the entire economy.

It's about screws, bolts or washers.

As a rule, there is no reason to worry about the fact that without them, washing machines, solar panels, combine harvesters or cars cannot be manufactured and the trades have to stop working - not to mention small repairs in the home.

But now the European Commission wants to introduce anti-dumping duties on screws from China, which would almost double their price.

The screw wholesaler warns of the end of products "Made in Germany".

Hendrik Kafsack

Business correspondent in Brussels.

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The costs have exploded anyway because of the existing delivery bottlenecks. The delivery times would have tripled in 2021 and are now up to 14 months. "The consequences will be felt in schools, in the food industry and in the health sector, where school desks, refrigerators or medical devices are held together by fasteners," emphasizes the Association of Screws Wholesalers (FDS). Without the right screws, none of these end products could come onto the market. The screw manufacturers, however, are satisfied. The German Screw Association (DSV) announced that fair conditions were finally being created.

The case is exemplary.

He shows how tricky it is sometimes to intervene in trade on the basis of fair competitive conditions, and how companies use the anti-dumping allegation as a lever to gain advantages for themselves.

This is especially true when the situation is ambiguous, as is often the case when it comes to China.

China won with a lawsuit in 2016

The European Commission initiated the anti-dumping procedure on screws following a complaint from the EU umbrella organization DSV, the “European Industrial Fasteners Institute”. He has been complaining for years that China is importing screws into the EU at prices that are in fact lower than the manufacturing costs. In 2009, the Commission therefore already imposed anti-dumping duties of initially 85 percent, but had to lift them in 2016 following a lawsuit by China by order of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Europeans used unrepresentative comparative figures to justify the tariffs.

That is precisely the problem in all anti-dumping proceedings against Chinese products. Because the EU does not want to rely on the information provided by China, which is not organized as a market economy, it uses the production costs in comparison countries to determine dumping. This gives the Commission some leeway, which has recently met with criticism when it came to the imposition of anti-dumping duties on Chinese steel. In the screw case, the Commission uses Thailand as an analogue country. Because the screws from China are imported into the EU too cheaply by comparison, an anti-dumping tariff of 86.5 percent will apply from February. Only some of them are said to benefit from a reduced rate of 39.6 percent. So far this is just a suggestion. The EU states have the final say. You can stop the decisionif a large majority opposes it.

"For us this is the last hope," says Alexander Kolodzik from the FDS. As in 2009, the Commission set the tariffs on the basis of absurd assumptions. In addition, neither the other Asian manufacturers from Taiwan to Vietnam nor the Europeans have the capacities to close the resulting gap. The EU Commission does not officially comment on this because it is an ongoing procedure. The DSV rejects the allegations. It is not about sealing off the EU. China could continue to import screws into the EU. This should just not happen at prices that “in an exaggerated way correspond to the material price”, emphasizes DSV managing director Hans Führlbeck.

He considers the risk of delivery bottlenecks to be vastly exaggerated.

On the one hand, the market did not collapse in 2009 when the EU last introduced anti-dumping duties on screws.

On the other hand, screw manufacturers in the EU are ready to invest in expanding production if the price signals are correct.

Imports from China in the product groups concerned last amounted to 209,000 tons per year.

On the other hand, there are production capacities of 2 million tons in the EU, which recently were only half fully utilized.