April 2, 2004 – The European Union is joining the US’ fight against China’s chip taxes as a third party, according to the Xinhua Financial News.

Isabel Ramallo, spokesperson for the EU’s Chinese delegation, noted that the EU is not joining as a co-complainant, meaning that it will closely monitor the process rather than taking part in the negotiations.

“We expressed concerns that China’s use of VAT in the domain of semiconductors looks as though it is discriminatory between domestic production and imports, and this would be contrary to WTO rules,” she said.

Since the US filed its formal complaint to the WTO on March 18, Taiwan has said it will join the complaint, as has Japan as a third party. The US and China currently are in negotiations over the dispute.