WTO Rules EU'S Anti Dumping Violations Against China Fasteners

December 3rd, local time.

The report, which is 394 pages long, may make it more difficult for the EU and the United States to impose anti-dumping duties on developing economies such as China and Vietnam, according to foreign media reports.

Since China joined the WTO in 2001, the surge in exports to developed countries has led to tension in matters such as currency value, public contracts, Western companies' access to China's market and dumping charges.

The European Union and the United States widely use the WTO rules that allow countries to impose tariffs on dumping commodities. They frequently target the countries in which the government plays an important role in the economy, such as Chinese goods India.

During the period from 1999 to 2009, China became the target of 445 anti-dumping measures, that is, 24% of all such measures taken by all WTO members.

The Wall Street Journal quoted Simon Lester, founder of the world trade law advisory network, as saying: "China has been accused by many other countries and has also become a challenge to other countries."

In early December this year, China appealed against WTO's decision to impose tariffs on steel pipes, tires and woven bags imported from China two years ago.

Import tariffs helped the European Union reduce the value of fasteners imported from China to US $555 million 700 thousand from US $1 billion 390 million in 2007.

In July this year, China filed an appeal. The main idea was that the European Union used unfair comparisons between the costs of India and the European Union when deciding how much the cost of Chinese Fasteners would be.

Because China is listed as a "non market economy", investigators are allowed to use the joint work to determine how much cost it will cost to produce a product without receiving government assistance.

In December 3rd, WTO accepted China's argument that the low cost of producing such products in China is reasonable, even without the help of the government.

China issued a statement saying that WTO "clearly shows that the EU's anti-dumping legislation and practice is discriminatory and violates the relevant rules of WTO".

It is reported that the European Union can lodge an appeal within 60 days.

If the appeal fails, the EU will have to modify these tariffs and change its way of investigating dumping charges.