MOFCOM Comments on US Preliminary Countervailing Determination Duty on OTR Tires from China
Source: MOFCOM Date: 2008-01-14
On Dec.10, 2007, the U.S. Department of Commerce made its preliminary countervailing determination on off-the-road (OTR) tires from China, which determined that the Chinese enterprises involved enjoy many subsidies and a temporary countervailing duty shall be imposed upon them. The Chinese side has expressed strong dissatisfaction over and firm opposition to such a decision.
U.S. decided not to impose countervailing duties on the so-called “non-market economies”since 1984, and such a practice had already been established as a legal precedent in the US judicial lawsuits. Turning a deaf ear to the US law as well as its own consistent practice, the U.S. Department of Commerce has made unfair determinations after having conducted five successive countervailing investigations, leading to frequent countervailing appeals by US industries on the products from China. Such practices are by no means conducive to the normal development of the bilateral trade and economic ties.
Meanwhile, the Chinese side had been demanded by the US Department of Commerce to provide a large amount of information only on the basis of the groundless fabrications by the appealing party. Moreover, the latter had arbitrarily expanded the information-searching scope, going against the WTO requirements on countervailing investigations.Despite the active cooperation of the Chinese side with the US investigation, the US Department of Commerce, unfortunately,refused to adopt or believe in the authentic and effective data provided by the former and thus a miscalculation of the extent of subsidies.
The unjust determination by the US side was not only violating its own law and the multilateral rules, but also self-evident of its discrimination against the Chinese enterprises as well as its prejudice against the development pattern of Chinese economy, inciting the US trade protectionism, impairing the interests of the Chinese industries, which can not be accepted by the Chinese government or the Chinese industries.The Chinese side shall reserve its rights of taking further measures to safeguard the well-being of its enterprises.
