China protests over US duties

‘Necessary measures’ set to be taken in response

China is “strongly discontent” with a US decision to impose steep import duties on aluminum products from China, a trade official said Wednesday, adding that the country will take “necessary measures” to defend its interests.

“The US ignored WTO rules and seriously damaged the interests of Chinese aluminum foil exporters,” Wang Hejun, head of the trade remedy and investigation bureau under the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), said in an online statement.

The US Department of Commerce on Tuesday announced a final ruling to impose stiff anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on Chinese aluminum foil.

The US still treats China as “a non-market economy” based on its domestic laws and uses the “surrogate country” approach to calculate unreasonably high anti-dumping duties ranging from 48.64 percent to 106.09 percent, Wang said.

Under the surrogate country approach, importing countries can easily adopt trade remedies by using production and price data in a third country to calculate the degree of dumping. But this method was supposed to expire on December 11, 2016 according to the protocol on China’s accession to the WTO nearly two decades ago.

Wang said the anti-subsidy duties ranging from 17.16 percent to 80.97 percent were also groundless.

“The US Department of Commerce wrongly identified Chinese raw material providers and financial institutions as ‘public institutions,’” he said, adding that “China will take necessary measures to defend its interests in response to the wrong practice of the US,” without providing more details.

The US has said aluminum foil imports from China jeopardize its domestic industries.

Many US businesses withdrew from aluminum foil production to direct more resources into other aluminum markets that were more profitable more than 20 years ago, Wang said. “Dropping US aluminum foil output and shrinking market shares are attributable to the choices of US producers, rather than imports.”

Instead of reviving US industries, the unreasonable trade remedy measures by the US will curb domestic employment and reduce the benefits for US consumers, Wang said.

The US announcement came as a top Chinese official is paying a visit to Washington. Liu He, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and director of the General Office of the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs, is reportedly set to hold talks with US officials about bilateral relations and trade.

In a warming sign ahead of Liu’s visit, MOFCOM on Tuesday announced that it had removed antisubsidy and anti-dumping duties on US white-feathered broiler chickens.