Commission to assess next steps for tackling discrimination in China's public procurement market for medical devices

Discrimination in China's medical devices procurement market

A report published today, highlighting continued discrimination against EU medical devices in China's public procurement market, will inform the Commission's assessment on what measures should be taken to restore the EU-China level playing field in this area.

The report, which outlines the main findings of the first investigation under the EU's International Procurement Instrument (IPI), presents clear evidence of China limiting the access of EU medical devices producers to its government contracts in an unfair and discriminatory way.

The EU remains committed to engaging China in a constructive dialogue aimed at addressing and eliminating the discriminatory measures. However, in the absence of an acceptable solution, the Commission will now carefully assess the possibility of adopting IPI measures. If it finds that such measures are in the EU interest, they could include a restriction on, or exclusion of, Chinese bidders of government contracts in the EU.

Background

The Commission Report published today concludes that China has put in place several different forms of direct and indirect discrimination against EU medical devices and suppliers, resulting in a serious and recurrent impairment of their access to this market across the entire territory of China. This discrimination affects all medical devices categories.

The EU public procurement market is one of the largest and most accessible in the world. Moreover, Chinese exports of medical devices towards the EU experienced a surge of more than 100% between 2015 and 2023, demonstrating the overall openness of the EU market.

The International Procurement Instrument entered into force on 29 August 2022. The tool is designed to restore the balance of opportunities for EU companies tendering outside the EU, and promote open and fair access to public procurement markets around the world. Its main goal is to encourage the reciprocal opening of public procurement markets to EU economic operators and EU supplies.

The Commission launched its first investigation under the Regulation in response to measures and practices in the Chinese procurement market for medical devices on 24 April 2024.

Any measure adopted under the IPI has to be specific and based on the principles of proportionality and efficiency, while considering any possible supply issues.

For More Information

IPI Report on Chinese procurement market for medical devices

Staff Working Document

EU International Procurement Instrument

Launching an IPI complaint

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