The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on Saturday expressed strong dissatisfaction with U.S. rules for imports of aluminum foil from China, saying that the U.S. has ignored WTO rules.
The U.S. Commerce Department said in a statement on Friday that it would impose preliminary import duties ranging from 96.81 percent to 162.24 percent on Chinese aluminum foil as the products are being sold at unfairly low prices.
MOFCOM said the move was unjust as the U.S. still uses the analogue country method for judging China's industry.
The analogue country method was written into section 15 of the accession protocol formulated by the WTO and China when the country joined the organization in 2001. It said that if China could not prove the existence of market conditions in a certain industry, other countries investigating that industry could base their judgment on data from countries at a similar level of development.
However, this expired on December 11, 2016, and all WTO members should abandon the method in anti-dumping probes and rules against China, said Wang Hejun, head of MOFCOM's trade remedy and investigation bureau.
The U.S. has ignored this and declined to comply with its global obligations by continuing to adopt the discriminatory analogue country method toward China, Wang noted.
The U.S. decision not only harms the interests of Chinese companies, but also damages the seriousness and authority of multilateral rules, Wang said, adding that China has urged the U.S. to comply with its global obligations and take practical action to correct this "incorrect practice."
"The Chinese government will adopt necessary measures to safeguard the legal rights and interests of Chinese enterprises and reserve relevant rights under the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism," said Wang.
The U.S. Commerce Department launched anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations into imports of aluminum foil from China in March.
