Firms Urged to Steel Themselves for Fight against Trade Barriers

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, April 09, 2002

Firms Urged to Steel Themselves for Fight against Trade Barriers

Chinese companies and industrial associations should learn to use the World Trade Organization dispute-resolution mechanism to fight back trade discriminations in the world market, experts said on April 8.

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Chinese companies and industrial associations should learn to use the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute-resolution mechanism to fight back trade discriminations in the world market, foreign-trade experts said on April 8.

"Companies should seriously consider whether they should ask the government to start the WTO dispute-resolution mechanism when being unfairly charged of dumping or confronted with other forms of trade protectionism," an expert with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Co-operation, a think-tank of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation (MOFTEC), was quoted as saying by Beijing-based China Daily.

In most cases, the mechanism should be able to help redress trade discriminations against China and let Chinese companies maintain and regain their market shares, said the expert, who declined to be named.

But since it joined the WTO last December, China has resorted to the body's dispute-resolution mechanism only once: the United States' controversial imposition of tariffs of up to 30 per cent on steel imports.

"Chinese steel firms, the Chinese Association of Iron and Steel Industries and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce for Importers and Exporters of Metals, Minerals and Chemicals have done a great deal in mobilizing China's complaint to the WTO on the US tariffs," said another MOFTEC official on condition of anonymity to the newspaper.

The steel firms have asked the Chinese Government to bring a complaint, either directly to the government or through the association and the chamber of commerce, according to the expert.

With the US' infliction of up to 30 per cent of tariffs on Chinese steel products, there is spreading a fear in China that the tariffs would severely damage Chinese relevant industries and could even block China's steel exports by triggering a new round of global trade protectionism.

"If domestic industries say they have been hurt by some foreign governments' measures, the Chinese Government will certainly take it upon itself to negotiate with the foreign governments or take other possible countermeasures including the WTO dispute-resolution mechanism to help them," she said.

But the trade academy expert said that, because China is a new member of the WTO, many Chinese companies are unaware of the WTO dispute-resolution mechanism, less possibly they know how to use favorable articles in the WTO to safeguard their benefits.

More often than not, most firms simply choose to give up responding to unfair dumping accusations and turn to explore other markets.

WTO statistics show China has become the largest victim of the use of anti-dumping measures, with Chinese companies involved in over 430 cases.

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