Starting from May 24, China is to levy tariffs from 7 percent to 26 per-cent on imports of nine steel products that exceed certain quotas, said sources close to the government.

　　The temporary safeguard measure comes shortly after China submitted to the World Trade Organization (WTO) a list of US products on which it intends to suspend promised tariff reductions in line with its WTO commitments. The quota tariffs were adopted in response to appeals by domestic steel firms, which suffered a lot from US steel tariffs.

　　This suggests China is to join the European Union in protecting domestic steel companies against surging imports in a retaliatory move against United States tariffs on steel imports.

　　The US tariffs, which took effect on March 20, have drawn angry reactions from its major trading partners. The EU, Japan, South Korea, Russia, China and Brazil are among the hardest hit. It is likely to trigger a new round of trade protectionism for steel industry.

　　The EU, Japan and Switzerland have filed with the WTO lists of US products to be subjected to punitive tariffs in response to the US steel tariffs earlier this month.

　　Some imports of waste paper, bean oil and electric compressors from the United States will be subject to 24 percent tariffs, said the list. The added tariffs will be enforced after the WTO disputes settlement body gives the final jurisdiction and will be valid until March, 2005.

　　Anti-dumping came along with the development of foreign trade

　　China has edged one step forward to become the world's 6th largest trading nation, The other top five were United States, Germany, Japan, France and Britain. However, China has surpassed Canada, Italy, the Netherlands and Hong Kong last year.

　　China's share of world trade has been rising during the 1990s. China's foreign trade had achieved an average annual growth of 12.8 percent in exports during 1994-2000, notably above the world average of 7 percent and the growth of most of the other key trading nations. Moreover, China's trade surplus is now the third largest after Japan and Germany.

　　However, a new unfavorable factor has emerged. Induced by the global economic downturn and the intensifying global over-supply, a new wave of protectionism has come up. Somebody call it "new protectionism". Import restricting measures allowed by WTO have often been abused by protectionist motivation.

　　As China has evolvedsintosa major and fast growing exporter, it has naturally become the key target of protectionism. Since the mid-1990s China has replaced Japan and Korea as the number one target of anti-dumping cases, and has been at the receiving end for almost 500 cases of protection measures since 1996, with about US billion of exports affected. The UN also estimated that over US.4 billion of China's annual exports have been affected by "green"?technical barriers.

　　The number of anti-dumping filings against China rises to 14 percent of the total of dumping disputes during 1995-2001, sending China atop on the list of dumping cases during that period. Of all the dumping files against China, 68.6 percent finally lead to punitive measures, up 8.2 percentage points compared with the world average.

　　The products involved in these cases involve more than 4,000 varieties in the fields of nonferrous metals, chemical industry, light industry, textile, agricultural produce and livestock, machinery and electronics and medical and healthcare products.

　　Some experts said the relatively low price of Chinese products and the rapid rise in China's exports have triggered such a large number of anti-dumping actions.

　　The experts said the competitive edge of some labour-intensive Chinese products on the international market may have led to anti-dumping actions from some developed countries, which fear their products risk being extruded out of the market.

　　What we did

　　China filed five anti-dumping cases in March alone, the most cases in a single month since China enacted its Anti-Dumping Law in 1997, according to the bureau's latest statistics. The anti-dumping measures that China has adopted are instrumental to maintaining a sound and fair tradesgroupsand safeguarding domestic industry.

　　After years?efforts, China has made great achievements on responding to anti-dumping prosecutions. In the past 10 years, China has won some 37.5 percent anti-dumping cases with the no-tariff or no-loss ends.

　　Chinese enterprises have become active in adopting vigorous measures on anti-dumping cases, and they have responded all such cases in the United Sates and the European Union.

　　These activities have taken great effects on protecting domestic industries and markets as well as maintaining a fair international trade system. In addition, a great number of personnel have been turned out in practices for dealing with anti-dumping cases, heralding a new way on anti-dumping investigation for China.

　　The State Economic and Trade Commission has turned its anti-dumping websitesintosan e-governance platform, enabling the Bureau of Industrial Injury Investigation to work in a more efficient and transparent way.

　　China's official anti-dumping website has celebrated the first anniversary. An internet platform of this kind is important for China to collect anti-dumping data and formulate appropriate measures - and respond actively to anti-dumping charges - in a timely and accurate way.

　　Despite the hard work of MOFTEC and SETC (Economic and Trade Commission) staff members, compared with the US and European Union (EU), resources in the section are still not enough.

　　What shall we do?

　　The rising protectionism has left China with no choice but to take firm action to exercise its rights as a WTO member. It must fully exploit the provisions from WTO rules to protect its own interests. Indeed, the fight against protectionism and greater efforts made to comply with foreign standards will be more important measures for maintaining China's export growth than prevailing ones such as export tax rebates and interest subsidies on loans to exporters.

　　Despite some successful cases, anti-dumping consciousness of most Chinese enterprises remains weak, and China's regulations related to anti-dumping were far from adequate. But considering that the anti-dumping regulation is a totally new system, its weakness is understandable.

　　It is imperative for China to adopt anti-dumping, anti-subsidiary and protective measures to regulate international tradesgroupsand to protect the security of domestic industry.

　　Lawyers suggested that the government should strengthen its anti-dumping institutions and issue regulations that are easier to implement.

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　　China is also paying close attention to the new farm bill signed by US President George W. Bush recently which will allow subsidies of up to US billion to the country's farming sector in the coming decade.

　　The EU, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and many other WTO members had all expressed discontent and protests over the US bill.

　　The bill distorts international farm trade, goes against the US Government's commitment to liberalizing farm trade and damages the ongoing WTO new round of talks on farm trade, said a joint statement from MOFTEC and the Ministry of Agriculture.

　　In another development, China will start an anti-dumping investigationsintosimports of toluene diisocyanate from the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea.

　　China imposed anti-dumping measures against cold-rolled stainless steel sheet products from Japan and South Korea in 2000, the fourth anti-dumping case that China has acted on since it adopted anti-dumping and anti-subsidy regulations in March 1997.

　　By the end of 2001, there have been altogether 30 countries brought up actions against China on anti-dumping cases and safeguarding measures, with over USbn involved, according to Zhang Yuqing, director of Laws and Treaties Department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation

　　China's Anti-dumping Statute was putsintosoperation on January 1, 2002. The statute, which was approved at the 46th executive meeting of the State Council on October 31, 2001, includes regulations concerning dumping and damage, anti-dumping investigations, anti- dumping measures and an anti-dumping tax.

　　The statute put forward three kinds of anti- dumping measures, namely, temporary anti-dumping measures, price promises and an anti-dumping tax.

　　According to the statute, anti-dumping investigations will be conducted on the condition that imported products enter China at a price lower than their actual export value, and actually cause damage, or pose a potential danger, to domestic enterprises.