China accused Washington yesterday of abusing trade relief measures after US regulators increased import duties on Chinese-made steel pipes.
“These seemingly fair trade measures in fact are abuses of trade relief measures which are intended to protect the domestic economy,” Commerce Ministry spokesman Yao Jian (姚堅) said, referring to a series of US trade cases against Chinese exporters.
“If the whole world followed the US and took similar measures, what kind of picture will that be?” Yao said.
The Commerce Department on Wednesday imposed preliminary duties of 11 percent to 13 percent on certain types of Chinese-made stainless steel pipes to offset what it said were improper subsidies to manufacturers. It said a final determination was due on May 10.
Yao said the number of US anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases against Chinese goods rose by more than 50 percent last year to 23, while the value of goods affected rose by eight times to US$7.6 billion.
The US government says US imports of Chinese-made seamless pipes were US$382 million in 2008 and had increased 131 percent by volume since 2006.
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