The EU on Friday asked the WTO to rule in a dispute over Chinese anti-dumping duties imposed on steel pipes imported from EU countries.
The EU said in a news release that it made the request to the WTO after unsuccessful consultations last month to resolve the dispute over the duties imposed by China on imports of high-performance stainless steel seamless tubes from EU countries.
“The EU continues its fight against unjustified Chinese trade defense measures, which do not comply with WTO rules and often seem to be motivated by retaliation,” EU trade spokesman John Clancy said in the statement.
Beijing said the duties would protect Chinese companies.
“This is not an act of retaliation but to protect the domestic steel trade,” analyst Zhang Lin said in a statement posted on the Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s official site in June when the EU lodged a complaint with the WTO.
The statement says China’s steel products are often subject to anti-dumping investigations in overseas markets.
“It is a reasonable and logical measure for hitting back,” Zhang said.
A dispute over China’s solar panels was defused last month after Chinese companies agreed to set minimum prices. Meanwhile, the Chinese commerce ministry spokesman Shen Danyang (沈丹陽) said last week that Beijing continued to investigate whether the EU has been dumping its wine and poly silicon products in China.
China imposed anti-dumping duties ranging from 9.2 percent to 14.4 percent on the high-performance steel pipes imported from EU countries and Japan last year.
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