China urges US to correct itself after WTO case win

BEIJING - China welcomed an decision by the World Trade Organization (WTO) to reject the appeal by the United States in a trade dispute over countervailing duty measures, and urged the US to correct its wrong trade remedy conducts.

"This is a major victory for China in its efforts to use WTO rules to fight the US abuse of trade remedy measures and protect China's own legitimate interests," said Sun Jiwen, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, late Thursday in a written response to the WTO ruling.

"China's major trade interests are at stake in this case," he added.

The Appellate Body of the WTO earlier Thursday decided to uphold its previous findings that the United States acted inconsistently with WTO rulings in issues concerning determinations of "public body," determinations of the specificity of land subsidies, and the launch of countervailing investigations based on export restrictions.

"China welcomes the decision," said Sun.

As shown in the Appellate Body's ruling, the United States acted inconsistently with WTO rules, the spokesman said.

"China hopes to see the US face up to its long-standing and systemic legislation and practices in the field of trade remedy, which are against WTO rules, and correct its wrong conducts in a timely and all-round manner so as to safeguard the authority and seriousness of WTO rules and create a good environment for world trade," Sun said.

The Appellate Body also further confirmed that the benchmarks applied by the US in conducting the countervailing duty investigations against certain Chinese products are against WTO rules.

However, China is disappointed that the Appellate Body failed to complete legal analysis concerning the use and specificity of raw materials subsidies, Sun said.

Countervailing duties are tariffs on imposed goods intended to offset subsidies in the exporting country.

In May 2012, China requested consultations with the US on the imposition of countervailing duty measures by the latter on 22 products from China. The WTO set up a panel in September 2012 to look into the dispute.

In July this year, the WTO issued a panel report, backing China on many aspects and finding the US measures breach the WTO rules. Then US lodged an appeal against the ruling.