Country contests Australia's trade moves

China lodged a complaint with the World Trade Organization on Thursday against Australia for the latter's anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures on Chinese exports of railway wheels, wind towers, and stainless steel sinks.

China's Ministry of Commerce said the move came after Australia adopted or extended anti-dumping measures on railway wheels and wind towers imported from China in 2019, and extended anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures targeting stainless steel sinks imported from China in 2020.

Gao Feng, a commerce ministry spokesman, told a news briefing on Thursday in Beijing that the nation took the move in hope of safeguarding the legitimate rights of Chinese enterprises, as well as to support the multilateral trading system and the authority and effectiveness of the WTO.

"The WTO faces unprecedented challenges currently, and China opposes abusing trade remedy measures which not only damage the legitimate rights of Chinese enterprises but also undermine the authority of WTO rules," he said.

"China hopes Australia will take concrete actions to correct wrong practices and avoid distorting trade in relevant goods, so that related trade will return to normal as soon as possible."

Asked if any measures are in the pipeline to mitigate the negative impact of renminbi appreciation on Chinese foreign trade enterprises, Gao said the ministry will observe the fluctuations in the RMB exchange rate, and strive to help China's foreign trade enterprises.

"Under the influence of multiple factors, the exchange rate of the RMB has been fluctuating either way since the beginning of the year," he said.

"We have noticed in a recent survey that the fluctuation in the RMB exchange rate, together with problems like price increases in raw materials and disruptions in logistics, have had an impact on operations and production of some Chinese foreign trade enterprises."

The commerce ministry, the People's Bank of China, the central bank, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, have been jointly pushing financial institutions to continuously optimize exchange rate-related risk hedging products and services, promoting the manual on exchange-rate risk-hedging among foreign trade enterprises, and providing targeted guidance to enterprises on how to hedge risks.

The three central departments have jointly conducted a national online training program on exchange-rate risk-hedging, and information on related courses has been published on the MOC website.