China Will Appeal WTO Ruling on Section 232 Retaliatory Duties
China will appeal a World Trade Organization panel ruling rejecting its claim that the retaliatory tariffs placed on the U.S. in response to Section 232 duties were justified, the country's Ministry of Commerce said Sept. 19, according to an unofficial translation. Beijing will appeal "into the void" seeing as the Appellate Body currently doesn't function, barring future enforcement action against China in the dispute.
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China's Commerce Ministry said it "believes that the expert panel’s ruling in this case contains legal errors" and noted that the Section 232 steel and aluminum duties imposed by the U.S. have been found to violate WTO rules, though the U.S. blocked the ruling from taking effect, avoided its implementation obligations and "refused to cancel the illegal tariff measures." The U.S. should take "concrete actions to respect WTO rules, correct illegal measures," and work with WTO members to ensure that the body's dispute settlement functions are working, China said. The dispute panel issued its report in August, finding that China violated the most-favored-nation trading principle by hiking tariffs on U.S. goods while allowing the same products to enter at lower duty rates from other exporters (see 2308160055).
China informed members of its decision during a Sept. 19 WTO Dispute Settlement Body meeting, a Geneva-based trade official emailed reporters. Also during the DSB meeting, the Dominican Republic announced its decision to appeal a dispute panel report in a spat brought by Costa Rica on the Dominican Republic's antidumping duties covering corrugated steel bars. The U.S. then blocked a request from Argentina for the establishment of a dispute panel to look into Argentina's case against U.S. antidumping duties on oil country tubular goods from Argentina.
During the DSB meeting, China also told the body of its intent to implement a panel report's findings in a case from Japan on Chinese antidumping duties on stainless steel products from Japan. Requests from India, the EU and Taiwan were also agreed to by the DSB regarding additional time for adoption of the panel rulings in the EU's and Taiwan's case covering India's tariffs on goods in the information and communications technology sector, the trade official said. The DSB will now delay consideration of the panel reports until Dec. 18.
The U.S. issued status reports on the implementation of DSB recommendations on antidumping measures on certain hot-rolled steel products from Japan; antidumping and countervailing measures on large residential washers from South Korea; certain methodologies and their application to antidumping proceedings involving China; and Section 110(5) of the U.S. Copyright Act. Status reports are also expected from Indonesia on measures related to the import of horticultural products, animals and animal products, and from the EU on measures affecting the approval and marketing of biotech products. Numerous countries proposed nominations for the Appellate Body; the U.S. said it wasn't in a position to endorse them.