EU proposal on China's MES likely to come at second half of 2016: EC

The proposal on the European Union (EU) whether to grant China the Market Economy Status (MES) will only be likely to come at the second half of this year, according to the European Commission (EC) on Wednesday.

"We will come back to the issue later, it will be discussed...over the next few months," said EC Vice President Frans Timmermans at a press conference on the commission's College meeting attended by its chief officials.

EC's President Jean-Claude Juncker "very clearly concluded that this issue has to be looked at from all important angles, given the subject is important for international trade but also for the EU's economy," Timmermans told reporters.

The commission is set to offer a proposal to European Council and European Parliament on whether to grant China MES, a move for the bloc to change the method to calculate its dumping rates imposed on imported Chinese product after December.

The current rules the EU adopted to calculate dumping margins on Chinese product, which based on that China was not considered a market economy in anti-dumping proceedings, will expire in December according to rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO), in which China and the EU are both major members.

The EU has not yet granted China MES although China has been a WTO member for 15 years.

An impact assessment of changing market economy status for China was under way, the commission said. Endit