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realities and the details of subsidies may be changed. In the cubic metres of hardwood plywood from China in 2023 worth
home market many home furnishing companies have begun €327 million, accounting for more than half of imports and
to increase corporate subsidies on the basis of government 30 percent of the total EU market.
subsidies, launch new home furnishing packages targeted to

cater to the market. Wood flooring sells well in the ‘Belt and Road’
As much of home decoration is of wood products the wood- countries
based panel sector benefits from this initiative. The subsidy It has been reported that wood flooring from Huzhou City
policy is a gradual process and it is believed that under the in Zhejiang Province has been selling well in the ‘Belt and
continuous implementation of local policies consumption will Road’ countries.
be stimulated. Local obserevers comment that wood-based Between January and September this year the value of
panel enterprises should also be prepared to actively cooperate Huzhou wood flooring exports to ‘Belt and Road’ countries
with the implementation of local policies, introduce relevant was about RMB230 million, an increase of 6% year on year.
marketing measures and link dealers around the country to The wood flooring products in Huzhou City are exported to

revive their own development. more than 10 ‘Belt and Road’ countries such as Thailand,
Malaysia and Vietnam.
Anti-dumping investigation of Chinese hardwood In Nanxun District of Huzhou City, there are many wood
plywood flooring manufacturers which have successfully created green
In October the European Commission launched an anti- wood industry clusters. The output value of the cluster reached
dumping investigation into hardwood plywood imported into RMB11.33 billion in 2023 and its output of wood flooring
the EU from China. accounted for about 35 percent of the national total. Solid

The investigation was initiated at the request of the nine wood flooring and multilayer laminate flooring are exported.
European plywood producers. It is claimed that China’s Huzhou wood flooring industry has seized the opportunity
exports of hardwood plywood are unfairly priced and use of to expand its market share in the ‘Belt and Road’ countries
Russian timber banned by the EU and this trade threatens
the financial viability of many European companies and jobs. PFEIFFERV
The product under investigation is currently classified under
the HS codes ex 4412 31, ex 4412 33 and ex 4412 34 (CN
and TARIC codes 4412 31 10 80, 4412 31 90 00, 4412 33
10 12, 4412 33 10 22, 4412 33 10 82, 4412 33 20 10, 4412

33 30 10, 4412 33 90 10, and 4412 34 00 10).
Several other countries, including the US, Morocco, Turkey
and South Korea have already taken action to protect their
own industries from similar unfair trade practices.
EU will adopt new rules for the first time to register all
imports of Chinese plywood and if it decides to impose tariffs
in the future, there will be a retrospective period to prevent

companies from hoarding goods to evade tariffs.
According to Eurostat data, the EU imported about 750,000