China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) has requested the European Union (EU) to terminate an old practice of investigations of anti-dumping of Chinese products by the end of this year. The surrogate system adopted by the EU is set to expire in December, according to a protocol of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on China's accession 15 years ago, a MOC statement said.

All WTO members should abide by the protocol, regardless of their domestic standards or any other issues including industrial overcapacity, added the statement.

Under the current anti-dumping probe method, the EU uses costs of production in a third country to calculate the value of products from countries on its non-market economy list which includes China. The practice allows the EU to easily levy high tariffs.

The statement came after the European Commission held a second orientation debate on the treatment of China in anti-dumping investigations, considering the option to abolish the list and set up a new country-neutral method.