The World Trade Organization (WTO) Friday authorized Beijing to impose $ 3.6 billion (US $ 3.2 billion) worth of US products a year in a six-year-old dispute over anti-dumping taken by Washington. This is the first time the WTO has allowed China to sanction US products. Beijing had however demanded the possibility of being able to punish up to more than 7 billion dollars a year.
The United States can not appeal this decision, but the green light from the WTO does not prejudge Beijing's decision whether or not to impose such sanctions, in whole or in part, in the form of surcharges on American products.
A six-year litigation
The dispute dates back to December 2013 when China filed a complaint with the World Trade Commissioner to challenge the US administration's determination of whether exports are being placed on the US market at dumped, dumped prices. Anti-dumping duties are authorized by the WTO, but they are subject to certain conditions and are therefore often subject to challenge by countries.
In its complaint, China had accused Washington of applying the so-called "zeroing" methodology, in which the price of imports is calculated from their usual value in the United States, to assess the possible dumping situation. .
China demanded measures on more than 7 billion US products
On October 19, 2016, a panel of WTO experts ruled in favor of China on certain points, including the so-called "zeroing" methodology. The United States, which has lost several times in previous cases concerning this method of calculation, said in June 2017 that it wanted to implement the panel's recommendations while claiming that it needed a "reasonable period of time" to following which the WTO set the deadline of 22 August 2018.
A few days later, China, considering that the United States had not complied with the decision of the WTO, had asked the WTO to be able to retaliate on more than 7 billion US products. The WTO arbitrator ruled that the amount advanced by Beijing was too high. In its report released on Friday, it states that it has determined "that the level of nullification or impairment of benefits accruing to China" as a result of US WTO-inconsistent anti-dumping measures "is 3,579, 128 million USD per year ".