WTO Arbitrator Says China Entitled to Levy Tariffs on $3.58 Billion in US Goods
Because the U.S. did not fix antidumping calculation methods after it lost a case in 2017 regarding 25 Chinese products, China will soon be authorized to levy tariffs on about $3.58 billion in U.S. goods, the World Trade Organization announced Nov. 1. China will have to formally request the right to retaliate at the next Dispute Settlement Body meeting, scheduled for Nov. 22.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
China had argued the damage to its companies was worth $7 billion (see 1809110043). At issue is the fact that if companies in a given category don't affirmatively explain why they should be treated differently, the Commerce Department assumes they are state-controlled (see 1610190037). This kind of China-wide treatment is not legal, the WTO panelists said.
However, where China could retaliate is not clear, since it has already raised tariffs on $75 billion of U.S. imports (see 1905130043) outside the WTO rules, in response to U.S. actions that were also outside WTO rules. While China has lower tariffs on some U.S. goods -- 5 percent and 10 percent -- most observers think China has been strategic with the tariffs it has chosen, trying to minimize the harm to its own industries or consumers. Some areas that China has avoided imposing tariffs at all -- for instance, in civil aircraft -- making the U.S. seller non-competitive would give the European seller too much market power, disadvantaging Chinese airlines.