WTO Appellate Body Hands Victory to Washington on China Steel Duties

The Appellate Body on Thursday, 18 October confirmed an earlier panel finding that had largely sided with Washington in its claim that Beijing had breached WTO rules governing the imposition of anti-dumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duties.

The US-produced  grain oriented flat-rolled electrical steel (GOES) targeted by China had been manufactured in the US states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, where it had benefitted from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act - more commonly known as the US economic stimulus package - as well as certain state government procurement laws. GOES is used primarily for power generation, specifically in transformers, rectifiers, reactors, and large electric machines.

The legality of the governmental support, however, had not been subject to the WTO dispute. Rather, Washington had alleged that China had not followed the procedures spelled out in the WTO’s Antidumping Agreement and the WTO’s Subsidy and Countervailing Measure Agreement.

Washington’s initial victory was now confirmed in full by the Appellate Body after China had challenged in its appeal certain issues of law and legal interpretations.

“This is a victory for the United States as well as for American workers and manufacturers,” US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said.