Speaking on April 14 in relation to the US antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) petitions against certain Chinese steel imports, spokesman of China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC), Yao Jian, stated that in China's view the case will have a significant impact on exports of Chinese steel products to the US market and that the Chinese goverment will be keeping a close eye on the case.
On April 8 a group of US oil country tubular goods (OCTG) producers filed AD and CVD petitions with the US Department of Commerce (DOC) and the US International Trade Commission (USITC) against imports of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) imports from China.
Mr. Yao pointed out that the difficulties existing in the US related industries should be attributed to the sharp declines in both consuming capacity and demand, caused by the global economic crisis. He said it would be groundless to pin difficulties on imports with a blind accusation of dumping or countervailing, adding that trade protection moves will not be able to solve the problems faced by the US steel industry.
Mr. Yao stressed that world leaders attending the G20 summit had reiterated their opposition to trade protectionism and trade remedy measures and that China hoped the US would maintain its objective and fair stance when dealing with the case.
Meanwhile, in a separate statement made later, Mr. Yao Jian announced that China is to send a delegation to the US to discuss the antidumping issue. He also said that the imposition of AD duties on steel products from China would be harmful to Sino-US trading relations. He went on to remark that China's steel exports to the US fell by 55 percent during the first quarter of this year.