China Warns Of Increasing Trade Disputes At WTO

China’s Permanent Representative at the World Trade Organization (WTO), Yi Xiaozhun, has advised the Chinese Government that there is a likelihood that it will be involved in trade disputes, particularly with the United States and the European Union (EU), that will increase in both number and intensity in the future.

Yi is reported to have said that, with the US and EU intensifying their action against Chinese imported goods, the Government should be aware of the Chinese industries that will come under attack, and be ready to defend them in the WTO against the harsher measures that will be taken against their products.

He pointed out that Chinese goods worth billions of US dollars are now under dispute at the WTO, while, as has already been noted by the Ministry of Commerce (MOF), US and EU action has evolved from imposing single measures against Chinese imports to, in many cases, adopting both anti-dumping (ADs) and anti-subsidy countervailing duties (CVDs).

In fact, the MOF has insisted that the imposition of anti-subsidy CVDs against a non-market economy, such as China, is in violation of WTO rules. In its on-going disputes with the US, China has already established, in December last year, a WTO Dispute Settlement Body to examine its complaint that US AD and CVD measures are being applied simultaneously to some 30 products, or USD7.2bn of its exports to the US.

Yi added that trade disputes have extended across many disparate sectors. For example, in 2012, taking a lead from similar investigations in the US, the EU launched AD investigations into imports of solar panels and cells from China valued at more than USD27bn, affecting the whole Chinese solar industry.

The EC’s AD investigation was initiated in September last year and could take up to 15 months in total, with the possible imposition of ADs when the EC issues its provisional findings by June 2013, and was followed by a CVD investigation under which the EU could also impose provisional CVDs by August this year, provided there is sufficient evidence of subsidization.

The MOC has already said that it sees itself as fighting a long list of actions taken against China at the WTO, and has already highlighted what it sees as a tendency towards global trade protectionism, led by the US.

March 7, 2013

Source: Tax News