The United States has challenged China over its export restrictions on some raw materials, particularly those used to produce chemicals and metals, a US document on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) website shows. The United States said Chinese duties on the materials had cut Chinese exports, pushing up prices abroad, but depressed prices at home through oversupply, giving Chinese processors using the materials an advantage over their foreign competitors.
China is the only one of the WTO's 153 members to be subject to a series of transitional reviews for the first eight years after joining the WTO in 2001. The United States will use a forthcoming review to express its concerns.
"In past transitional reviews, the United States has expressed strong concerns about China's use of export quotas and export duties, particularly on raw materials. In 2008, China continued these policies, and in many cases made them even more restrictive," the United States said in the document.
"The United States remains very concerned about all of these actions," said the US document, dated October 20 and published on the WTO website, ahead of a meeting of the WTO's Council for Trade in Goods on November 18. It said China had raised export duties on natural phosphates to 110-120 percent in 2008 from 10-20 percent in breach of its accession terms.
The document said the world price of yellow phosphorus had doubled to $9,000 per tonne since the Chinese measures, while falling in China to $3,000-3,500 per tonne. Similarly a 10 percent duty on refined metal lead imposed in 2007 had caused a steep fall in Chinese exports and contributed to a sharp rise in world prices.
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