European Commission Warns of Trade Case Against China BRUSSELS - The European Commission said on Wednesday it was ready to start an investigation into anticompetitive behavior by Chinese producers of mobile telecommunications equipment, opening a new front in Europe's trade offensive against China. The European Union trade commissioner, Karel De Gucht, said in a statement that he and fellow commissioners had agreed in principle to open an antidumping and antisubsidy case, although they would first seek to negotiate a solution with Chinese authorities. 'The clock is ticking. We have had an open-door policy for negotiations with our Chinese partners for approximately one year now and we hope that the Chinese authorities step forward and engage with us in a serious manner,'" Mr. De Gucht's spokesman said during a news briefing. The European Union has 31 ongoing trade-related investigations, 18 of them involving China. The largest to date involves imports from China of solar panels, cells and wafers, worth 21 billion euros ($27.25 billion), for which the Union is proposing punitive duties. China exports more than 1 billion euros worth of telecommunications network equipment per year to the European Union. The equipment is used by telecom providers to transmit voice and data messages. The proposed investigation into telecommunications equipment would be a new twist in the European Union's trade defense against China because it would be initiated by the European Commission itself and not in response to a complaint by industry. By initiating a case, known as an ex officio case, the commission said it would provide a degree of protection for companies. "'This possibility is particularly important as it offers a "shield" when the risk of retaliation against European companies asking for trade defense instruments is high,'" the commission said. The commission did not name any of the Chinese producers or the European manufacturers it believes are threatened. But European officials have indicated that while European manufacturers like Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and Alcatel-Lucent have suffered as a result of cheap imports by Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE, they are not prepared to make a formal complaint for fear of reprisals.