China announced late on Friday it will exclude some steel products
from the safeguard measures implemented in mid-November in response
to a controversial United States tariff on steel imports.
These products will be exempt from extra tariffs starting February
1, even if imports exceed the set quotas, said a notice issued by
the Ministry of
Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC).
Industry insiders said the exclusion was widely expected because
imports of some steel products had already reached up to half their
quotas in the first month after the measures were adopted.
The original safeguard measures involve five categories of steel
products: cold-rolled thin plate, hot-rolled thin plate, painted
thin plate, non-grain oriented silicon steel and cold-rolled thin
stainless sheet.
China imported 10.09 million tons of the five steel products in
2001, accounting for 58.61 per cent of the country's total steel
imports of 17 million tons, according to official statistics.
Imports that exceed certain quotas will be levied extra tariffs of
10.3 percent to 23.1 percent per the measures, which became valid
on May 24, 2002, and runs through May 23, 2005.
Also on Friday, US President George W. Bush rejected proposed
quotas seeking to limit rising imports from China of mechanical
devices known as pedestal actuators.
Chinese officials were not available for comment but trade experts
saw the US decision as good news in a delicate stage of the World
Trade Organization (WTO)'s free-trade negotiations.
In
October, the US International Trade Commission voted 3-to-2 in
favour of a request for relief by US manufacturer Motion Systems
Corp of Eatontown, New Jersey. The commission recommended import
quotas.
The US producer's appeal drew attention for being the first attempt
to get import relief under special "safeguard" provisions that
allowed China to join the WTO. US Congress approved special
safeguard relief from Chinese imports as a condition for the United
States to grant permanent normal-trade-relations status to China, a
key precursor of China's accession to the WTO.
Safeguard relief does not require evidence that a product has been
sold at "less than fair value" or is produced with government
subsidies as is required for traditional anti-dumping and
countervailing import duties. Safeguard remedies are allowed in the
event of a "market disruption," which the law defines as a rapid
increase in imports that materially injures a domestic
industry.
Bush said the overall impact of quotas on the US economy would be
more damaging than any relief to Motion Systems.
(China Daily January 20, 2003)