China launched a complaint at the World Trade Organisation on Friday against US import duties on 22 Chinese products that the United States says are unfairly priced or subsidised, including solar panels and steel products. "China firmly opposes the abuse of trade remedy measures and trade protectionism," China's Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
China's complaint counter-attacks in areas where the United States has hit Chinese products with punitive tariffs, known as anti-dumping duties or countervailing duties, in recent years. China said the complaint covers exports worth $7.3 billion, encompassing such diverse products as citric acid, kitchen shelving and lawn groomers. It also includes wind towers, even though the US Commerce Department's preliminary decision on those wind tower imports is not due until next Wednesday.
Just eight days ago the US Commerce Department set punitive tariffs on Chinese solar panels, which it said Chinese exporters had dumped on the US market at unfairly low prices. The United States hit Chinese steel pipe imports with hefty anti-dumping duties in 2010, and later in the same year it launched a trade suit over Chinese government grants to wind power manufacturers, although it did not pursue the case.
A spokeswoman for the Office of the US Trade Representative, Nkenge Harmon, said it was studying the complaint and would respond in accordance with WTO rules. "The Obama Administration strongly supports the trade remedy laws, and was the first Administration ever to apply a 421 safeguard to imports from China," she said. A 421 safeguard is a US measure that allows manufacturers to request emergency restrictions on Chinese imports in response to a surge.
COMPLAINT WON Last year China won a WTO complaint similar to Friday's against US duties on imports of Chinese steel pipes, off-road tyres and woven sacks. US Trade Representative Ron Kirk called that decision "a clear case of overreaching" by the judges.
Many of China's grievances might have been dealt with by a US court decision last year, which struck down the Commerce Department's ability to impose countervailing duties on "non-market economies" such as China. But the US Congress voted to restore it in March, ensuring US duties on about two dozen Chinese goods stayed in place.
China's new complaint, the seventh it has filed against the United States since it joined the WTO in 2001, comes just as WTO chief Pascal Lamy flies to China for a four-day visit, during which he will meet Vice Premier Wang Qishan. The legal process begins with China holding talks with the United States to seek an amicable settlement. It may move to arbitration if the two cannot agree, and the United States could be forced to scrap its duties and even compensate China if it is found to have broken the rules.
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