US urged to be fair in trade problems ( 2003-11-25 23:37) (China Daily)
China urged United States to take a fair approach
in tackling trading problems after the United States made an anti-dumping ruling
on Chinese-made TV sets.
A woman
customer walks past several TV sets in a department
store.[newsphoto.com.cn]
The US Commerce
Department on Monday announced in a preliminary ruling anti-dumping duties of
27.94 to 78.45 per cent on imported TVs from China.
The rate is the dumping margin based on the comparison of real prices and
normal prices.
In the same ruling, however, the department dismissed a dumping complaint
against a Malaysian television set exporter.
The department said it plans to hand out its final ruling on April 12 next
year.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce, showing great concern over the decision,
said the ruling was not based on facts.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said yesterday that the trade
disputes should be properly tackled through equal consultation so as to ensure
the sound development of the bilateral ties.
And the official from the Bureau of Fair Trade for Import and Export of the
Chinese Ministry of Commerce said that Chinese TV makers imported raw materials
from Japan and United States and then exported the TV sets back to United
States, in which they earn the processing fees.
"The high dumping margin ruled by United States leads to a conclusion that
these raw material providers firstly dumped their products into China,'' the
official said.
It is also unreasonable that the United States choose India as the surrogate
country, despite the fact China's TV industry has a high degree of competition
and is in a full market economy.
By defining China as a non-market economy, US and EU anti-dumping rules use
production costs in a surrogate country, where material and labour costs are
much higher than in China, to calculate the normal value of Chinese exports.
The official noted the United States has filed seven anti-dumping cases with
China this year, involving a value of US$1.6 billion, which affected normal
US-China trade.
Another official from the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of
Machinery and Electronic Products, said the Chamber will organize TV makers to
negotiate the dumping margins with the United States.
"The method of calculation is different from that in previous cases. We find
some problems in it,'' the official said.
He said the Chamber will submit the arguments after a thorough study with
local TV makers.
The ruling on Monday is preliminary and there are many more steps before the
final ruling, the official said.
"In the process, we will make efforts for a better result,'' he said.
Li Yong, general manager of the Overseas Trading Co under the Xiamen Overseas
Chinese Electronic Co Ltd (Xoceco), one of China's largest TV makers, said the
ruling is unfair.
"But the ruling was expected, since we know it has turned into a political
issue as the US elections are coming,'' Li said.
Li expected the US officials will change their approach when they conduct
on-the-spot checks in China and said his company is well prepared for it.
The TV ruling is the latest US move to create trade skirmishes with China to
help boost President Bush's re-election chances.
The US Commerce Department claimed last Saturday that two small US firms were
harmed by China's sales of pipe fittings at below-market prices, which pave the
way for the department to finalize duties averaged at about 11 per cent.
It also decided last Tuesday to impose safeguard measures on Chinese imports
of knitted fabric, dressing gowns and bras.
