China asks EU to end investigation on modem dumping

China said on Tuesday it hopes the European Union (EU) will end investigations into a complaint that it is dumping wireless modems into EU markets.

Chinese and European companies had reached a basic agreement on the dispute and submitted it to the European Commission, Commerce Minister Chen Deming said at a media briefing on the sidelines of Tuesday's annual China-EU trade talks in Beijing.

The EU launched an investigation in September into a complaint that China had been dumping wireless wide area networking (WWAN) modems that have radio antenna and provide internet protocol (IP) data connectivity for computers.
"We hope the EU Commission can make the decision to terminate that investigation as soon as possible," Chen said, noting that the EU Commission was soliciting opinions from various parties on the issue.

The European Commission, in charge of trade policy for the 27-nation bloc, had received the complaint from Belgium's Option , the sole maker of the wireless Internet devices in Europe.  Chen's comments come as China hopes to smooth escalating trade tension with its chief trade partner.

"The rise of EU trade investigations into Chinese products this year is very apparent. Those investigations are not in the interest of healthy China-EU trade relations," Chen said.