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A classic anti-dumping trade dispute over cheap Asian exports to Europe has got entangled in a wider debate about the environmental impact of the goods concerned, namely plastic bags.
The subject of plastic bags, which was discussed late this week at a meeting of European Union anti-dumping officials, has also underlined the difficulties of penalising imports in a sector where European production has fallen to a fraction of the global industry.
Last June, Brussels started investigating complaints that plastic sacks and bags from China, Malaysia and Thailand were being exported to the EU at below domestic market prices.
Malaysia is the world's biggest producer of carrier bags. China exports $300m (euro252m, £173m) of plastic bags to the EU each year, but has a much more fragmented industry, with about 110 Chinese companies potentially targeted by the sanctions. However, Peter Mandelson, the EU's trade commissioner, has recommended that the EU should not impose provisional duties on the bags.
Still, a Brussels official warned that the EU, could still decide to introduce five-year duties later this year.
Moves are growing across Europe, and other parts of the world, to limit the number of plastic bags that are given out by shops and end up as litter or are sent to landfill, where they take 400 years to disintegrate. They also pose a danger to marine animals and to birds, which can suffocate by swallowing the bags, or become trapped or entangled in them. More than 8.0bn bags are given out annually in the UK alone, which accounts for half of all carrier bags imported into Europe.
Earlier this year 15 leading British retailers, including Tesco and Argos, wrote to Mr Mandelson to warn him against sanctions on Asian bags, since the additional costs would have to be passed on to consumers.
Guy Thompson, director of Green Alliance, a British environmental group, said: "Whatever the outcome, this kind of trade dispute really helps raise awareness of what is a much more important environmental issue."
Environmental groups have been increasing the pressure on governments to take action. The bags are taxed in Ireland and Denmark, and legislative moves are under way to ban their use in France, while many retailers charge for bags in countries such as Poland, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Belgium and the Netherlands.
But David Pearce, the managing director of German plastic bag maker CeDo, which has operations in China, said that he was "rather disappointed" by Mr Mandelson's opposition to the duties.
He warned that the dumping of plastic bags from Asia on the European market would result in even greater use of the bags, and more litter.
An alternative to banning or taxing bags is to use bio-degradable bags, which are just as strong but tend to be more expensive to produce.
French regulations would allow bio-degradable bags, which break down in the environment within a year or two of being discarded, to continue to be handed out.
Howard White, managing director of Stanelco, which makes such bags from starch, said: "This is a way of being responsible to the environment while also saving millions of barrels of oil."
A few UK supermarkets have begun to use bio-degradable bags as standard.
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