EU raids offices of Chinese security equipment maker in subsidy probe – Saudi Gazette

EU raids offices of Chinese security equipment maker in subsidy probe – Saudi Gazette

LONDON — European Union officials have raided the offices of a Chinese company as part of a probe into subsidies, exposing rising tensions between the bloc and one of its biggest trading partners.The European Commission said Tuesday that it carried out “unannounced inspections” at the premises of a company making and selling security equipment in Europe, which it suspects may have benefited unduly from state subsidies. It did not name the company.“The commission has indications that the inspected company may have received foreign subsidies that could distort the (EU’s) internal market,” the EU’s executive body said in a statement on its website.The China Chamber of Commerce to the EU said Wednesday that it had been informed that a Chinese company was the target of the investigation.The Chinese lobby group, whose members include Chinese state-owned and private firms, expressed its “strong dissatisfaction” about the raids, which it said had been conducted at offices in Poland and the Netherlands “without prior notice and without solid evidence.”“The European side manifested its intention to weaponize the Foreign Subsidies Regulation as a tool to suppress lawfully operating Chinese companies in Europe,” it said in a statement.In response, a spokesperson for the European Commission told CNN