China has expressed “strong dissatisfaction” with the United States imposing antidumping and countervailing duties on Chinese aluminum foil, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) stated.
The US Commerce Department said it would levy antidumping and countervailing duties on a number of Chinese firms, with dumping margins ranging from 48.64 percent to 106.09 percent and anti-subsidy rates of 17.14 percent to 80.97 percent, Reuters reported.
“The US has disregarded the WTO rules and seriously damaged the interests of China’s aluminum foil exporters. China is strongly dissatisfied with this,” Wang Hejun, the head of MOFCOM’s Trade Remedy and Investigation Bureau, said in a quick statement.
Trade relations between US and China is one of the most pressing issues that the administration of President Donald Trump concentrates on. Trump describes trade deficit with China was as "bad" and "embarrassing," and further blames previous administrations "for allowing this trade deficit to take place and to grow."
The Commerce Department reported recently that the US trade deficit in goods and services rose 12 percent to $566 billion last year, biggest since 2008.
US statements came the same week as Liu He, China's top economic advisor, visits Washington for a discussion on trade relations between the two countries.
The US, Europe and other Asian nations share concerns that China’s excess industrial capacity is distorting prices on the global markets, Bloomberg reported.
The administration in November took the rare step of initiating an anti-subsidy and anti-dumping investigation into Chinese aluminum alloy on behalf of the domestic industry, a move that companies usually lead.
US imports of aluminum foil from China were an estimated $389 million in 2016, according to Commerce.
