WTO Verdict China Wins In Anti-Dumping Dispute

In November 1st, the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled that because the US government failed to comply with its rulings and abolished anti-dumping duties against China, China could impose tariffs on US goods up to US $3 billion 600 million per year. Bloomberg said the penalty was the third highest in the history of the WTO. As of the publication, China has yet to make a statement on the ruling.

It is understood that the ruling originated in 2012, and is a Sino US lawsuit under the WTO framework. From 2007 to 2012, the United States imposed countervailing duties on solar panels, wind turbines, cylinders and aluminum products from China. China filed a lawsuit against WTO in 2012 about this wrong practice in the United States. After several complaints, in July 16, 2019, the WTO released the report of the appeal body of China's action against the US countervailing measures (DS437). The 11 countervailing measures against the US involved in violation of WTO rules require the us to correct its irregularities. In July of this year, the Ministry of Commerce of China said that the ruling of the WTO appellate body once again proved that the United States violated WTO rules and repeatedly abused trade remedy measures, which seriously damaged the fairness and impartiality of the international trade environment.

Qian Wenjie, partner of Gao Peng law firm, said in an interview with the global times 3, that the above case is a very important lawsuit. The final ruling proves that the US practice does not conform to the WTO rules. Bloomberg reported in November 2nd that the next steps the United States could take include modifying the alleged anti dumping restrictions imposed on Chinese goods, or settling disputes directly with China. The Broadcasting British Corporation (BBC) reported in November 2nd that although the ruling involved 3 billion 600 million dollars, which appeared to be very small compared with the hundreds of billions of dollars involved in Sino US economic and trade frictions, WTO's decision was rather symbolic. BBC also said that although the ruling was aimed at a complaint filed by WTO 7 years ago, when the ruling was announced, when the Sino US economic and trade consultations were still inconclusive, special attention was paid to the possible impact of the ruling on bilateral trade negotiations.

In from October 10th to 11th, China and the United States conducted a new round of high-level consultation on Trade and economic cooperation. Both sides expressed substantial progress. On Friday, Kudelo, director of the National Economic Commission of the White House, told the media: "the agreement has not yet been completed, but we have made great progress." Kudelo expressed optimism about the progress of Sino US consultations. China's Ministry of Commerce announced in November 2nd that on the evening of November 1st, Liu He, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice premier of the State Council and Chinese leader of the Sino US comprehensive economic dialogue, spoke with the US trade representative, Wright chight, and finance minister Mnuchin. The two sides held serious and constructive discussions on properly resolving their respective core concerns and reached consensus in principle. The two sides discussed the arrangements for further consultation.

But Chile abruptly announced the cancellation of the November APEC leaders' informal meeting in October 30th, so that both sides of the US planned to hold a meeting of heads of state were caught off guard. Reuters said in its report that when the Sino US economic and trade phased agreement will be signed, it will be more confusing.

Although the time between China and the US for reaching a stage agreement is not yet clear, the office of the United States trade representative has accumulated a large number of enterprises to be asked to exempt their import duties from China. According to CNBC11 report 2, the Trump administration imposed tariffs on China's US products worth $250 billion in the first 3 rounds of customs duties. More than 3000 American companies have made about 44 thousand applications, hoping to be exempt from customs duties. As of November 1st, 28 thousand of these applications were still under review. In addition, 4900 requests have been approved and 10970 requests have been rejected. In the coming months, more companies are expected to apply for exemption from customs duties.

It is understood that the office of the United States trade representative opened the fourth round of exemption procedures for tariffs on China's US $300 billion last week, which is by far the largest. CNBC said, as of Saturday, local time, the United States has imposed 146 tariff exemption applications for the fourth round of tariff sanctions. In October 31st, the Apple Corp also made a request to exempt 11 products or components from being imposed a 15% tariff.