China has announced plans to impose anti-dumping and countervailing duties on imports of some U.S.-made vehicles in the latest trade flare-up between the two countries.
China has announced plans to impose anti-dumping and countervailing duties on imports of some U.S.-made vehicles in the latest trade flare-up between the two countries.
The duties will be imposed for two years on imported cars and sport utility vehicles with engine displacements over 2.5 liters.
“US vehicles benefiting from subsidies and dumping on the China market have substantially damaged China’s auto industry,” the statement said.
US car makers General Motors and Chrysler Group will be mostly affected, with punitive duties as high as 12.9 percent for autos from GM and 8.8 percent for the latter, it said.
GM said late Wednesday the company and its partners “are working with relevant authorities to understand the impact of the Chinese government’s decision to lift the suspension of anti-dumping and countervailing duties and to seek a solution consistent with a constructive global trade environment.”
The company noted that its imports are less than half of 1 percent of the company’s domestic production in China.
Currently, China imposes tariffs of 25 percent on imported passenger vehicles.
In the past decade, foreign countries have filed more than 690 anti-dumping and counter-subsidy cases against China—with about 100 from the United States, involving some 40 billion U.S. dollars of goods, pubic data showed.
China’s latest strike-back, after failing to block a U.S. tariff on Chinese tires, has rekindled speculations of another round of trade war.
The U.S. International Trade Commission in early December announced a determination that imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and modules from China that allegedly subsidized and sold in the United States at less than fair value, have damaged a U.S. industry, which has cleared the way for imposing duties on such products.
On December 8, U.S. commerce department set additional preliminary duties of 5.08 to 26.23 percent on high-pressure steel cylinders from China.
In response, China’s commerce ministry declared to investigate whether the U.S. government has provided subsidies to its renewable energy industry.
The ministry also urged the U.S. government to stop “politicalizing” the trade and economic issues, and said U.S. bill to press China to revalue its currency has violated global trade rules.
This protectionism, as well as behaviors to politicalize economic and cultural issues, will hurt both other countries and the countries who adopt this policy, said Zhu Guangyao, a vice Chinese finance minister.