SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China accused the United States of “repeatedly abusing” international trade rules, as Beijing braced on Thursday for an imminent announcement from U.S. President Donald Trump slapping more tariffs on Chinese imports.
A World Trade Organisation ruling against Obama-era anti-subsidy tariffs on Wednesday handed China’s commerce ministry ammunition to criticize Washington’s conduct in trade affairs.
The ruling “proves that the U.S. side has violated WTO rules, repeatedly abused trade remedy measures, which has serious damaged the fair and just nature of the international trade environment and weakened the stability of the multilateral trading system,” the ministry said.
The WTO ruled that the United States had not fully complied with a 2014 ruling against its anti-subsidy tariffs on a range of Chinese products. However, it also supported the U.S. claim that Chinese exporters were getting subsidies from “public bodies”, despite Beijing’s assertions to the contrary.