The US has successfully established a dispute settlement panel at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to examine China’s export duties and quotas on eleven raw materials. These raw materials – including antimony, chromium, cobalt, copper, graphite, indium, lead, magnesia, talc, tantalum, and tin – are key inputs into a wide range of American products in vital industrial sectors, including: steel, automotive, aerospace, construction, and electronics.
The US claims that China’s export restraint measures are unfair as they appear to be part of a continuing policy aimed at providing substantial competitive advantages for Chinese manufacturers or moving manufacturing to China at the expense of manufacturers elsewhere in the world, especially, given China’s position as a leading producer of these raw materials.
The US claims that China’s export restraint measures are unfair as they appear to be part of a continuing policy aimed at providing substantial competitive advantages for Chinese manufacturers or moving manufacturing to China at the expense of manufacturers elsewhere in the world, especially, given China’s position as a leading producer of these raw materials.
China committed, as part of the terms of its WTO accession to eliminate export duties for all products other than those listed in a specific annex. While the export duties that the United States is challenging are imposed on products not listed within that annex, the US is building on two previous successful disputes where the WTO concluded that China’s imposition of export duties and export quotas on two different sets of raw materials was inconsistent with China’s WTO commitments and GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994).