(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-09-14 16:59

China will bring the United States to the World Trade Organization (WTO) for the first time over its countervailing and anti-dumping measures on Chinese-made coated paper.

The Chinese delegation to the WTO has notified its US counterpart on Friday, asking for consultation over the issue, according to a statement the Ministry of Commerce published on the website.

It marks the first time that China individually seeks a resolution under the dispute settlement system of the WTO since it joined the global trade body in 2001.

If the two parties failed to reach an agreement through consultation, China can ask the WTO to establish a panel for the settlement of the dispute.

Vice-Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said the US violated the WTO rules by conducting both countervailing and anti-dumping investigations against Chinese products, because they involved double taxation calculations, according to earlier media reports.

The US Department of Commerce said on May 30 it was slapping additional preliminary anti-dumping duties of up to 99.65 percent on coated paper imports from China. The decision came in the second of two cases brought by Ohio-based paper manufacturer NewPage Corp against imports from China, the Republic of Korea and Indonesia.

In the earlier case, the US Department of Commerce announced on March 30 it would impose preliminary countervailing duties on glossy paper from China, ranging from 10.9 to 20.35 percent.

The decision shifted its usual practice of the past 23 years by treating China - which is classified as a non-market economy - the same way as other US trading partners are treated in disputes involving government subsidies.

The US coated paper imports from China rose to US$224 million in 2006 from US$29 million in 2004. The paper is used in art books, high-end magazines, textbooks and annual reports.

Since last November, the US has launched dual investigations against five types of Chinese imports - glossy paper, pipes and tubes, welded steel pipes, laminated woven sacks, and off- road tires.