China's commerce ministry criticizes U.S. solar tariff extension

BEIJING, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- China's commerce ministry on Saturday criticized a recent extension of U.S. tariffs on imported solar products, calling the move unhelpful to the photovoltaic industry and disruptive to the global trade order.

The U.S. government announced Friday that the levies due to expire Sunday would remain effective for another four years as advised by the U.S. International Trade Commission.

"Despite strong opposition from relevant parties at home and abroad, the U.S. government insisted on extending the measures under Section 201," said an official of the Ministry of Commerce in a statement to answer media questions.

The move is unhelpful to the healthy development of the U.S. domestic industry and distorts the regular international trade order of solar products, said the official.

The official called for concrete actions from the United States to help address climate change, promote global free trade, including new energy products, and uphold the rule-based multilateral trading system.