BRUSSELS, Dec 5: European trade officials will launch next month an anti-dumping investigation into imports of hot-dipped steel products from China which was recently warned by the European Union’s trade chief of possible tougher action.

An industry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the European Commission would start the investigation in mid-December after accepting a complaint against the Chinese imports which was filed by European steelmakers in October.

The EU executive is also likely to agree to a parallel request for a probe into imports of stainless steel cold-rolled flat products from China, South Korea and Taiwan but that case was slightly delayed, the official told Reuters on Wednesday.

“We are confident the stainless steel (investigation) will be launched in early January,” the official said.

A spokesman for EU trade chief Peter Mandelson declined to comment.

Mandelson has expressed growing frustration at China’s snowballing trade surplus with the EU and what he say is its refusal to play by world trade rules, including its reluctance to open up its economy further to EU exports and investment.

Last week Mandelson attended an EU-China summit in Beijing dominated by trade tensions.

The Commission may impose provisional anti-dumping duties on imports deemed to be dumped within nine months of the start of an investigation, followed six months later by definitive duties that normally last five years.—Reuters