China has asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) to create an expert panel to examine the so-called “surrogate country” approach used by the European Union to calculate anti-dumping measures applied to Chinese exports. When China joined the WTO in 2001, it was agreed that member states should treat it as a non-market economy after 15 years. The deadline passed late last year, but the EU still applies tough rules that protect the bloc from cheap Chinese products. China asked the WTO to establish a panel to rule on its demand that the EU stop using a “surrogate country” system – judging the price of Chinese goods against a third country’s – to determine whether China is selling its products below market prices. “China is disappointed that it needs to seek action by the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) in order for the European Union to remedy the obvious and egregious WTO-inconsistency of its measures,” China’s Representative to the WTO said. China said previously that the refusal to grant it market economy status is an example of “covert protectionism” and “double standards” by the West. The EU has opposed the creation of the panel, but under WTO rules, if China makes a second request, it will automatically be set up. WTO’s panels of independent trade and legal experts take several months to decide. They can authorize retaliatory trade measures if they rule in favor of a plaintiff.