Earlier this year Europe seemed to be putting the era of banana wars and beef battles behind it. Fresh from settling several long-running farm disputes, the European Union announced plans to begin negotiating a broad transatlantic free-trade agreement. But souring relations with China may presage another debilitating round of trade rows. In May the European Commission said it intended to investigate Chinese telecoms firms over allegations of "dumping", or flooding foreign markets with below-cost goods to steal market share. The move came despite protestations from European companies such as Ericsson, a Swedish te-lecoms giant, that nothing good would come of a fight.
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