WTO sides with China on US trade tariff case

China won support from the World Trade Organization in challenging United States trade measures against Chinese products, while experts warned about underlying trade friction between the world's two biggest economies.

The WTO on Monday issued a panel report on the US' imposition of countervailing duties on 22 products from China. The WTO backed China "on many aspects ... and found the US measures breach the WTO rules, which is welcomed by China", said the Ministry of Commerce in an online statement.

Li Chenggang, director-general of the ministry's Department of Treaty and Law, told reporters in Beijing that the result was "within expectations" in view of the WTO's favorable ruling in a similar case in March 2011.