China Retaliates Against EU With New Duties

Almost immediately after the imposition by the European Union (EU) of anti-subsidy and anti-dumping duties against imports of Chinese coated fine paper, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce has announced anti-subsidy duties on European imports into China of potato starch.

The initial ruling issued by the Ministry of Commerce stated that, as certain European companies have been subsidized by EU member states in exporting potato starch to China, and as Chinese producers have suffered as a result, anti-subsidy duties of between 7.7% and 11.19% will be imposed, with effect from May 19.

An anti-subsidy investigation into potato starch imports had been started by the Chinese government at the end of August last year – the first time it had commenced such an action against the EU. It has now imposed anti-subsidy duties for the first time against imports from the EU, just as, a few days ago, the EU had imposed anti-subsidy duties for the first time against imports from China.

A month earlier, China had also decided to levy anti-dumping tariffs on EU potato starch goods. Those duties range from 12.6% to 56.7%. After the announcement of the EU duties on coated fine paper, the Ministry of Commerce said that the decision to impose both anti-subsidy and anti-dumping duties on the same goods appeared to be against WTO rules.

May 17^th, 2011

Source: tax-news.com