China questions US duties on Chinese tires

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By CGTN’s Wang Hui

China's Ministry of Commerce (MoC) is responding forcefully to the new US ruling to impose high anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs on Chinese tires exports. Both the Chinese government and Chinese tire industry say the investigation is flawed and unfair.

On Monday, the US Commerce Department issued the final ruling on Chinese tires for trucks and passenger vehicles: up to nearly 23 percent in anti-dumping tariffs, and up to 65 percent in anti-subsidy tariffs.

China's Ministry of Commerce. /CGTN Photo‍

China’s MoC has slammed the decision as unfair. Beijing says Washington is misusing the surrogate country approach.

"According to Article 15 of the accession protocol China signed when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, the surrogate country approach should have expired on December 11, 2016. But the US still used Thailand as the surrogate country to judge Chinese products this time. It caused high tariffs on Chinese products,” said Wang Hejun, director of MoC's Trade Remedy Bureau.

Wang Hejun, director of the Trade Remedy Bureau of China's Ministry of ‍Commerce. /CGTN Photo

Beijing also took aim at the US anti-subsidy investigation, saying Washington is mixing political bias with business.

"The US treated some state-owned enterprises and even private companies as public organizations, so ruled that they had accepted subsidies. We actually had already sued the US at the WTO on this type of actions, and we won in 2011, but the US refuses to obey the WTO's ruling," Wang added.

The year-long investigation has already affected Chinese tire exports to the US.

The gross export of these products totaled 1.5 billion US dollars in 2015, but dropped to 1 billion in the first 11 months of last year.

More than 100 enterprises have been affected.

A worker checks tires in a factory in Nantong city, Jiangsu Province. /CFP Photo

China is defending its enterprises with a lawsuit against the US actions at the WTO.

This is the first ruling to be issued under the Trump administration. And China's MoC has noted that they have seen a stronger sentiment of trade protectionism coming from the US. Beijing strongly opposes trade protectionist policies, and believes this type of stance goes against the global trend of upholding free and open trade.