REUTERS - China said on Monday
it had launched a dispute resolution case at the World Trade Organization over
the surrogate country approach used by the United
States and European Union to
calculate anti-dumping measures against Chinese exports.
When China joined
the WTO in 2001, it agreed to let WTO members treat it as a non-market economy
when assessing dumping duties for 15 years.
That gave trade
partners the advantage of using a third country's prices to gauge whether China
was selling its goods below market value.
But that clause
expired on Dec. 11, and China has demanded that countries abide by the
agreement.
U.S. Commerce
Secretary Penny Pritzker said in November the time was "not ripe" for
the United States to change the way it evaluates whether China has achieved
market economy status, and there was no international trade rules requiring
changes in the way U.S. anti-dumping duties are calculated.
China's Commerce
Ministry said in a statement on its website that 15 years on, all WTO members
had an obligation to stop using the surrogate country approach.
"Regretfully,
the United States and European Union have yet to fulfil this obligation,"
the ministry said.
Separately, a
ministry official said in another statement a U.S. investigation into what it
regards as Chinese dumping of plywood products launched last week amounted to
abuse of emergency trade relief measures.
The United States
and European Union are some of the biggest levelers of anti-dumping measures
under this process against China. The measures have seriously affected exports
and employment for Chinese firms, the ministry added.
The case China has
lodged is a normal way of resolving trade disputes, and it has every right to
do so, it said.
"China reserves
the right under WTO rules to resolutely defend its legal rights," it
added, without elaborating.
The United States
has repeatedly argued that China's market reforms have fallen short of
expectations, especially in aluminum and steel, where state intervention has
led to oversupply and overcapacity, threatening industries around the world.
REUTERS
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