China suffers record number of trade remedy probes in 2016

BEIJING - Chinese exporters have suffered a record number of 119 trade remedy probes initiated by 27 countries or regions in 2016, a 36.8 percent increase year-on-year, the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday.

The 91 anti-dumping and 19 anti-subsidy investigations, as well as nine safeguard measures involved $14.34 billion, up 76 percent from 2015 levels, ministry spokesperson Sun Jiwen told a press conference.

Sun noted that almost half of the probes, or 49 investigations initiated by 21 countries or regions involving $7.895 billion, targeted Chinese steel products.

Other products such as ceramic tiles, tires and photovoltaic products also faced restrictions from a number of countries or regions, Sun said, adding that trade frictions were further politicized, and trade measures taken by those countries or regions were increasingly extreme last year.

Sun said trade remedy measures are a double-edged sword, and in face of the weak world economic recovery, China hopes that all countries would use them in a prudent, restrained and standard way.

China is willing to work with all countries to solve frictions through negotiation and cooperation, so as to overcome pressure from the weak economic recovery and create shared development and prosperity, he said.

China's foreign trade volume for the first eleven months dropped 1.2 percent from a year earlier to 21.8 trillion yuan (around $3.16 trillion), while the trade surplus shrank 5.8 percent to 3.1 trillion yuan.