China urges US to revoke improper protective measures

BEIJING - China on Monday urged the United States to revoke protective measures that violated rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to bring the bilateral trade of related products back to normal.

The US measures against imports from a minority of countries abused the security exception clause of the WTO and seriously went against the principle of non-discrimination in multilateral trade system, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said in an online statement.

"China's interests were seriously damaged," the MOC said.

The ministry proposed tariffs for US products worth about $3 billion on March 23 to balance losses caused by a protectionist and unilateral decision from the United States to impose a 25 percent tariff on steel and 10 percent on aluminum.

Public opinion had been solicited until March 31. Based on a strong support, China decided to put the measures into effect, the MOC said.

The statement was released to comment on China's announcement to discontinue tariff concessions on some US products starting Monday.

The Ministry of Finance said Monday China has decided to impose a tariff of 15 percent on 120 items of products imported from the United States including fruits and related products, and a tariff of 25 percent on eight items of imports including pork and related products from the country.