The commerce ministry is forecasting a glum outlook for trade relations with the European Union (EU) as China is expected to remain the main target of EU trade remedy investigations again in 2010.

Last year, the EU initiated seven new trade remedy investigations, and all are anti-dumping cases against China, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said in a statement yesterday.

That figure is one more than the previous year, and accounts for 58 percent of all cases the region launched worldwide during the same period. The cases included aluminum wheels, scanners and ironing boards.

Trade remedies are government measures to minimize the adverse impact of imports on domestic industries.

The EU also launched 12 review investigations against China in 2009, making up 50 percent of all EU reviews conducted.

"China remains the top target of EU trade remedy cases," MOFCOM said.

China has been a major target of trade protectionist measures worldwide since late 2008.

By the end of November 2009, 19 nations and regions launched 103 cases against China. The United States was atop that list after launching the highest US dollar volume of cases, including a $1.2 billion tire case and a $2.8 billion steel pipe case.

It will be a long way before the EU economy "fully recovers" and "China's market economy status (MES) has not yet been recognized", and therefore trade remedy cases by the EU will not turn for the better, said MOFCOM.

"The unemployment rate is expected to remain high, forcing European industries to resort to protectionism. Without MES recognition, Chinese exporters will continue to be charged at an unreasonably high rate," it said.

Cheng Yongru, a division director in MOFCOM's Bureau of Fair Trade for Imports & Exports, said China and the EU need to engage in more frequent dialogue and work together to identify win-win solutions in the current financial climate.

According to Zhou Xiaoyan, director of the Bureau of Fair Trade. "China is attaching great importance to trade remedy cases".

Late last year, the Chinese government brought a steel fastener case against the EU before the World Trade Organization, the first time the nation did so against the region. Before that, the EU announced it would impose duties of up to 87 percent on steel-fastener imports from China.