Ericsson, which only recently was expressing confidence that it would gain a major share of China's LTE rollouts, has spoken out against European Union plans to probe the country's mobile export policies.
While the EU believes there is a case to answer about alleged Chinese dumping of mobile products, which would make it tough for European suppliers to compete in their home region, some vendors are concerned that the action would lead to reprisals, and limit their chances of winning contracts in China itself.
The Swedish infrastructure market leader said it did not support the EU's planned probe. Ulf Pehrsson, head of government and industry relations at the firm, said in a statement:
“Ericsson is a strong supporter of free trade and we don't believe in this type of unilateral measure. Our policy is for open, free and unrestricted trade and global supply chains, benefiting users and societies.”
The EU said last week that it planned to launch an investigation, but would not initiate this immediately, to allow time for negotiations with China on the issue.
According to EU spokesperson John Clancy, the product categories which may be affected by dumping or illegal government subsidies are worth about €1 billion ($1.28 billion) in imports to Europe from China.