Swedish official opposes to EU probe into Huawei, ZTE

BRUSSELS - A senior trade official of Sweden had voiced opposition to the European Commission's proposal to launch an investigation into Chinese telecoms equipment makers Huawei and ZTE.

Gunnar Oom, state secretary to Swedish Minister for Trade Ewa Bjorling, was speaking to Xinhua days after a majority of European Union (EU) countries had reportedly refused to support the Commission's plan in a meeting in Dublin.

Expressing doubts about the effectiveness of anti-dumping measures, Oom said, "From a more intellectual and scientific point of view, we don't think measures of this kind should be introduced, and this is our general stand point."

The European Commission has been collecting evidence since last year to prepare a possible case against the two Chinese companies over alleged "unfair" state subsidies, even without receiving any complaint from an EU company.

Huawei and ZTE's major competitors in Europe, such as Sweden-based Ericsson, the world's leading telecoms equipment maker, also don't like the proposed investigation, according to Oom.

While admitting that imposing anti-dumping duties might be a counter-measure against unfair trade practice, the Swedish official said, "Then, if you think a little bit more, these measures are meaningless."

Oom is sceptical of such measures also because some politicians in Europe "like to use these penalizing measures to demonstrate their management skills in a populist way."