China’s Ministry of Commerce said it “resolutely opposed” a US decision to impose preliminary duties on US$2.6 billion in imports of Chinese-made steel pipes, a move it called protectionist.
The case is one of the biggest to move through the US trade litigation system in recent years and comes as US President Barack Obama faces a Sept. 17 deadline to decide whether to curb tire imports from China.
It also comes ahead of a meeting of world leaders that will set the atmosphere for global trade talks.
PHOTO: AFP
“China is very concerned about this and resolutely opposed to such trade protectionist actions,” a spokeswoman for the commerce ministry said in a statement read over the telephone.
The spokeswoman would not say what specific steps China may take in response.
This case, and others that are pending, could push Beijing to become increasingly active in the WTO, which it has found to be a useful tool in keeping markets open to the exports that drive its economy.
“China is the number-one target of these duties and anti-dumping measures, and the primary reason is that China is very competitive,” said Edwin Vermulst, a trade lawyer with Vermulst Verhaeghe Graafsma & Bronkers, and adviser to the Chinese government on a different dispute.
“China will continue to resort to the WTO because if they don’t, other countries will feel like they have carte blanche,” he said.
China has filed only five complaints to the WTO but has been the respondent in 16 complaints. Three of the five in filed were in the past 11 months.
Chinese trade officials are rolling up their sleeves to fight other cases, including existing European tariffs against Chinese footwear and threatened US action against magnesia carbon brick, in addition to the US pipe and tires cases.
Although Chinese exports of steel pipe used to transport oil had soared over the past two years, peaking at 376,000 tonnes last November, they have since fallen dramatically.
The US imported 77 tonnes in July.
One possible line of defense for China, if it does take the steel pipes case to the WTO, would be to argue that countervailing duties, which depend on showing harm from a surge in imports, cannot apply when the volume of shipments is falling.
The US decision comes just two weeks before the G20 meeting in the steelmaking town of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, home to US Steel, one of the complainants in the steel pipe case.
World leaders gathered at the summit will set the tone for the Doha talks, which will tackle the prickly issue of agricultural subsidies and tariffs.
The Obama administration is due to make its ruling on the tires case before the G20 begins and its decision could set the tone for the meeting.
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