WTO sides with US on Chinese steel import duties

The World Trade Organization has ruled against China for imposing anti-dumping duties on US electrical steel imports, in a decision published Friday. A WTO dispute panel upheld claims by Washington brought to the trade body in September 2010, finding that China breached trade rules by not providing sufficient evidence for imposing the duties and conducting a flawed analysis. The WTO panel "concluded that China had acted inconsistently with" provisions of the international agreement on providing counterveiling subsidies as it failed to demonstrate it had sufficient evidence to undertake a probe. It said Chinese authorities "improperly resorted to facts available in calculating the dumping and subsidy rates" in certain cases, and "that the manner in which (China) applied facts available was inconsistent" with trade rules. The WTO also agreed with US claims that China "did not comply with the 'objective examination' and 'positive evidence' requirements" in its analysis of the effect US imports of grain oriented flat-rolled electrical steel were having on its market.