China’s Ministry of Commerce has announced the launch of dispute proceedings with the World Trade Organization directed at the US 301 tariffs investigation.
In an official statement released on 4 April the Ministry of Commerce said that “the United States has disregarded WTO rules, abjured its own commitments to the WTO, and the tariff proposals that it has publicly announced against China under the 301 investigation, which outline the levying of a 25% tariff against 1300 taxable goods, will affect approximately USD$50 billion of our exports.”
“This unilateral action not only severely harms the lawful rights and interests of China, it is also a total violation of WTO rules, and will inevitably undermine the authority of the multi-lateral trading system which is rules based. China firmly opposes this.
“China is an active participant in, firm supporter of and key contributor to the multi-lateral trade system, and hopes as well as believes that the WTO’s dispute resolution bodies will objectively and fairly handle this case, and pragmatically preserve the rules-based trading order.”
