China seeks trade-probe cuts

China has called on the United States to cut the number of trade remedy investigations on Chinese products, to reduce the chances for trade friction, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.

The US launched 20 trade remedy investigations on Chinese products in 2016, up 81.8 percent on a year-on-year basis. Among these investigations, there were 11 anti-dumping and nine countervailing investigations.

The amount of trade involved in the cases reached $3.7 billion, about 131 percent higher than the previous year.

The US recently announced several major findings on trade remedy investigations into Chinese products, including tires and stainless steel plates.

"Trade friction between China and the US is quite normal, as the trade volume between the two countries is significant," said Wang Hejun, head of the trade remedy and investigation bureau at the Ministry of Commerce.

The US will make final decisions on several trade remedy investigations concerning China this year.

"We have noticed that the rate of rulings on Chinese cases is abnormally high, and there are several practices that did not conform to the World Trade Organization rules, leading to strong objections from Chinese manufacturers in related industries," said Wang.

The US government has launched 265 trade remedy investigations on Chinese products including steel, glass, ceramics and photovoltaic products, worth $29.8 billion, since 1980.

Wang said China urged the US to implement trade remedy measures within the framework of WTO rules.

A total of 49 countries and regions have launched 1,745 investigation cases on trade remedies against China by the end of 2016, worth $126 billion.

Among these multi-billion-dollar cases, 1,392 were on anti-dumping and 117 on countervailing duties. There are 623 measures remaining active with estimated $62.1 billion amount of volume involved.

According to the WTO, China has become the biggest target of anti-dumping investigation for 21 years, and of countervailing investigations for a decade.

Xue Rongjiu, deputy director of the Beijing-based China Society for WTO Studies, said that apart from the rising frequency of these cases, the situation will remain challenging and complicated because both the US and European Union are to or may soon experience dramatic changes in their political system, which will have a direct impact on their trade relations with China.

Last year was particularly tough, with frequent trade conflicts involving China. Twenty-seven countries and regions have filed 119 cases, up by 36.8 percent from 2015.

The total value involved in the cases surged 76 percent since 2015, topping $14.3 billion. It means that cases worth $100 million were filed against China every three days in 2016.

Contact the writers at zhongnan@chinadaily.com.cn and renxiaojin@chinadaily.com.cn