Problems facing the Polish children’s pushchair manufacturing industry

Subject: Problems facing the Polish children’s pushchair manufacturing industry

The majority of the world’s pushchair manufacturing industry is concentrated in two areas – China and the Częstochowa region in Poland In addition, the entire production chain can be found in the Częstochowa region, along with the production of parts for pushchairs, which is unique in the EU. Pushchair manufacturers are witnessing an influx of cheap products imported from China. Two facts are of particular concern:

(1) There is a disparity in customs duties (the EU’s rate on goods from China is 2.7%, whereas in China the rate on EU goods is 25%).

(2) European businesses are labelling pushchairs imported from China as having been manufactured in the European Union (including in Poland).

In light of the above:

1. Does the Commission recognise the problem of unfair competition from Chinese goods in the pushchair industry?

2. Will the Commission review the customs duties to redress the disparity in the rates applied in this sector?

3. Does the Commission intend to change non-food product labelling policy to ensure that the country of production is labelled accurately and does not mislead consumers?

Submitted: 15.11.2024

Answer given by Mr Šefčovič on behalf of the European Commission

(12 February 2025)

The EU disposes of a number of trade defence instruments, such as anti-dumping or anti-subsidy duties, in order to protect European production against international trade distortions. Any EU industry may contact the complaints office of Directorate- General for Trade for advice (1).

Increase of the EU customs duties for a product may not be the more appropriate policy tool to address such concerns in the short term, especially since the maximum bound rates authorised for the EU under its commitments to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for children’s pushchair correspond to the applied most favored nation rates.

Under the General Product Safety Regulation (2), applicable as of 13 December 2024, manufacturers have to indicate their name and their postal and electronic address on the product that they wish to place on the EU market.

Importers and distributors, where it is relevant, need to verify that this labelling obligation has been complied with by the manufacturer before making products available on the EU market.

This will allow consumers to identify the origin of the manufacturer and give market surveillance authorities the manufacturer’s contact details in case they have product safety issues or questions.

On 17 May 2023, the Commission proposed a comprehensive Customs Reform package (3) to strengthen EU customs’ capacity to monitor goods.

This includes the creation of a new EU Customs Authority and an EU Customs Data Hub, which will centralise data to improve targeting of unsafe products.

The reform also eliminates customs duty exemptions for goods valued up to EUR 150 and designates platforms and sellers registered for the Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) as ‘deemed importers’, making them responsible for compliance.

1 ∙ ⸱ https://trade.ec.europa.eu/access-to-markets/en/glossary/single-entry-point

2 ∙ ⸱ Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single Market For Digital Services and amending

Directive 2000/31/EC (Digital Services Act) that entered into application on 17 February 2024; https://eur-lex.europa.eu/EN/legal-content/summary/digital- services-act.html 3 ∙ ⸱

Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the Union Customs Code and the European Union Customs Authority, and repealing Regulation (EU) No 952/2013; https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2013/952/oj/eng