Nation pushes back on US ruling

A worker drives a cart loaded with tires at Wanda Rubber Co Ltd in Dongying, Shandong province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

China on Wednesday pushed back against the "extremely unfair" United States ruling on its tire exports, and vowed to take action if its rights were infringed by the creep of trade protectionism.

Wang Hejun, head of the trade remedy and investigation bureau of the Ministry of Commerce, said the "extremely unfair" determination gravely hurt the country's interests, and urged the US to obey World Trade Organization rules by readjusting its wrong practice.

"We do not expect a trade war between the two sides, but China will take necessary measures if the rights are violated," Wang said.

The US Commerce Department made a final ruling on Monday that bus and truck tires from Chinese manufacturers were dumped and subsidized.

After preliminary determinations in June, it said the final anti-dumping margins range from 9 percent to 22.57 percent and anti-subsidy rates are from 38.61 percent to 65.46 percent.

China has always opposed trade protectionism and expressed grave concern over the actions of the US in defiance of the facts and in abuse of trade remedy measures, Wang said.

Wang added that the US investigation methods had "obvious flaws" and went "against the facts". The official cited several biased methods the US used in its investigations.

He said that for example the US Commerce Department refused to adopt the factual materials that China submitted, instead deliberately employed one-sided information, when evaluating the export buyer's credit, a loan facility provided by exporter's bank with the support of exporter's home government to the importer or its banks.

Experts said such a groundless ruling would harm both economies.

The frequent US investigations into Chinese tire products hindered the exports of Chinese tires, which hurt the interests of both Chinese tire businesses and US consumers, Wang said.

Pu Lingchen, a Zhong Lun Law Firm partner, said in a previous interview with China Daily that if high tariffs strip Chinese tire manufactures of their ability to export their products to the US affordably, the average tire prices in the market might rise and US consumers could have limited choices.

The comments came after the Chinese tire industry face months of severe tests from US anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations.

The case is still under review by the US International Trade Commission, which must decide how the imports injure the US domestic industry.