Expert: US tariffs on imported washers and solar panels are abuse of trade remedy

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US President Donald Trump slapped steep tariffs on imported washing machines and solar panels on Monday.

The decisions are supported by findings from the US International Trade Commission that both products cause injury to domestic manufacturers.

Li Yong, Senior Fellow with China Association of International Trade, said the tariffs are abuse of “trade remedy” in WTO system, and should be filed under protectionism.

For imported solar panels, a 30-percent tariff will be imposed on imported solar cells and modules in the first year, and the rate will decline to 15 percent by the fourth year. Meanwhile, 2.5 gigawatts of unassembled solar cells will be treated tariff-free in each year.

That tariff is an obvious method of protectionism, mainly aimed at Chinese companies, according to Li.

China’s solar companies, which take up a significant share of the global market, have largely relied on subsidized markets in Europe and the US in recent years for purchases of their products. In 2016, China exported 14 billion US dollars of solar equipment to the US.

Chinese Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday that it has expressed strong dissatisfaction with new American tariffs on washing machines and solar cells. The ministry also said that Washington's decision to implement the tariffs deteriorates the global trade environment.

Ministry official Wang Hejun called the tariffs an abuse of trade remedy measures. He said that China hopes the US will refrain from misusing trade remedies and that China will work with other WTO members to defend its legitimate interests.

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Anti-dumping and related trade remedies are the most popular policy instruments that many of the largest importing countries in the World Trade Organization (WTO) system use to restrict international trade, Li told CGTN.

But the US has overprotected its industry with a series of anti-dumping policies, Li added. Therefore, Li commented that Trump’s new measure is a kind of abuse of WTO’s instruments.

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For imported washing machines, a 20-percent tariff will be imposed on the first 1.2 million imported large residential washers in the first year. Above that number, the tariff will rise to as much as 50 percent. The tariffs decline to 16 percent and 40 percent respectively in the third year.

Trump's tariffs have dealt a heavy blow to South Korea's Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, who together sell between 2.5 million to 3 million washing machines annually to the US, making around one billion US dollars in export earnings.

The washer tariff punishes Samsung and LG while protecting their local rival Whirlpool. In that case, South Korea said on Tuesday it would complain to the WTO over US President Donald Trump's decision to slap steep tariffs on imported washing machines and solar panels. South Korea's trade minister said that the latest safeguard measures of the US were in violation of WTO rules.

(CGTN’s Wang Yue also contributed to the story.)