US imposes anti-dumping duties on Chinese aluminum foil

China said the US move ignored WTO rules and called on the government in Washington to fulfill its international obligations

The US imposed duties on imports of aluminum foil from China, ratcheting up trade tensions between the world’s largest economies before President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing next month.
 
The Commerce Department said Friday it would impose preliminary import duties in the range of 96.81 per cent to 162.24 per cent on Chinese aluminum foil, saying the goods are being sold at unfairly low prices. China disagreed with the US move.
 
In August, Commerce imposed preliminary duties on Chinese aluminum foil, ranging from 16.56 per cent to 80.97 per cent, citing state subsidies for the domestic industry that disadvantage American products. The move indicates that the Trump administration intends to keep up the pressure on China as its efforts to shrink America’s trade deficit have seen little success.

 

China said the US move ignored World Trade Organization rules and called on the government in Washington to fulfill its international obligations. “It not only hurts the interests of Chinese companies but also dents the seriousness and authority of multilateral rules,” according to a Chinese Ministry of Commerce statement.
 
China will “take necessary actions” to protect the legitimate interests of Chinese companies and reserves rights to resolve the dispute under WTO mechanism, it said.
 
The Aluminum Association Trade Enforcement Working Group, representing US producers, is the petitioner in the countervailing duty and an anti-dumping case.
 
Friday’s decision on anti-dumping duties had been postponed earlier this month to allow more time to determine whether China should be considered a non-market economy, which could give the US more flexibility in how they calculate tariffs to impose on Chinese products.