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An employee looks on at steel rolls at a factory in Nantong in China’s eastern Jiangsu province in March 2022. Photo: AFP

US appeals against WTO verdicts on steel tariffs on China and other countries

  • The trade body had ruled against punitive metal import duties imposed on China, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey by the Trump administration
  • Washington also appealed a ruling that it was flouting international trade rules by labelling imports from Hong Kong as being from China

Washington announced on Friday that it had appealed against four World Trade Organization panel rulings faulting it for punitive tariffs imposed on steel imports from China and other countries.

It also appealed a ruling that it was flouting international trade rules by labelling imports from Hong Kong as being from China.

Former US president Donald Trump’s administration introduced the tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from China, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey.

Marking a departure from a decades-long, US-led drive for free trade, Trump justified the steep tariffs with claims that massive flows of imports to the United States threatened national security.

Maria Pagan, US ambassador to the World Trade Organization, speaks at an interview in Geneva, Switzerland on Thursday. Photo: Reuters

The administration of his successor, President Joe Biden, has taken a less combative tone but has stuck with the tariffs.

The expert panels the WTO set up in 2018 to settle complaints filed over the tariffs ruled last month that they were inconsistent with various articles of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

The panels also determined that these inconsistencies were not justified by the security exceptions provided for in the GATT, as they were not applied in a time of war or during a case of serious international tension.

US Ambassador Maria Pagan criticised the rulings during a meeting of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) on Friday.

WTO rules for Hong Kong in its trade dispute with US

“The United States will not cede decision-making over its essential security to WTO panels,” she said.

“For over 70 years, the United States has held the clear and unequivocal position that issues of national security cannot be reviewed in WTO dispute settlement,” she said.

“The United States cannot support adoption of these fundamentally flawed and damaging reports,” she said, announcing the US decision to appeal.

Washington has also appealed a separate ruling issued last month faulting it for another decision under Trump to stop stamping products as “Made in Hong Kong”, and instead labelling them as Chinese-made.

02:17

Trump’s protectionist campaign promise: trade tariffs on steel and aluminium imports approved

Trump’s protectionist campaign promise: trade tariffs on steel and aluminium imports approved

After Hong Kong filed a complaint arguing that the move ignored its status as a separate WTO member, a DSB panel ruled the US shift in origins markings was “not justified” under global trade rules.

In the past, the WTO Appellate Body would have had three months to rule on any appeals filed.

But the appeals tribunal – also known as the supreme court of world trade – has been frozen since late 2019, after the United States under Trump blocked the appointment of new judges and demanded a dramatic overhaul.

By filing appeals into a void, Washington has in effect blocked China’s ability to move forward and request financial compensation for the US activities deemed illegal by the DSB.

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