Fewer trade probes against China
Nation remains top subject of investigations
The number of trade remedy investigations launched against China’s exports declined in the first half of the year, but China remains a top subject of such measures, a senior Chinese official said on Thursday.
In the first six months, 15 countries and regions initiated 37 trade remedy investigations targeting Chinese products, down from 65 in the same period last year, Gao Feng, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce ( MOFCOM), told a press briefing.
Total money involved in the cases stood at $ 5.3 billion, compared with $ 8.5 billion last year, according to Gao. Probes launched against Chinese exports for the first half of this year include 28 anti- dumping cases, four anti- subsidy cases and five protectionist measures, MOFCOM data showed.
India and the US led the countries in the number of probes, with 12 and 11 cases, respectively. In terms of sectors, light industrial products saw the most probes, numbering 10, according to the MOFCOM.
The drop in number of trade remedy investigations against Chinese exports is mainly due to domestic companies’ efforts to avoid cutthroat competition by selling commodities below cost, and also because the US didn’t launch probes against China’s steel and aluminum products, said Huo Jianguo, vice chairman of the China Society for WTO Studies.
“Currently, global trade conflicts are focused on steel and aluminum products. As the US is carrying out Section 232 probes into whether steel and aluminum imports impair US security, it hasn’t launched investigations against China’s steel and aluminum exports, therefore the number of initiations targeting China didn’t rise sharply,” Huo told the Global Times on Thursday.
The decline of trade remedy probes against China doesn’t mean the outlook is positive, experts noted.
Though domestic firms are making improvements in their export practices, trade protectionism and anti- globalization sentiment is on the rise in some countries, Bai Ming, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Thursday.
The number of trade remedy initiations targeting Chinese products has remained at a high level since the global financial crisis, Gao said. According to a report on G20 trade and investment measures jointly released by the OECD, WTO and UNCTAD in June, China has been the most frequent target of trade remedy initiations from 2008- 16 — accounting for one third of the reported initiations over this period.
Both experts said that domestic companies should strengthen their capability to handle such cases and propose lawsuits to the WTO for improper initiations.