China decided to impose anti-dumping duties on oriented electrical steel imported from the United States and Russia from April 11, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC).

The United States has subsidized the exports, MOC said in a statement posted on its website.

The dumping and subsidies have caused substantial damage to the domestic industry, the statement added.

The ministry decided to levy anti-dumping duties ranging from 7.8 percent to 64.8 percent on the U.S. exports and anti-subsidy duties of between 11.7 percent and 44.6 percent.

Anti-dumping duties between 6.3 percent and 25 percent are imposed on Russian exports, too.

The amount of the duties depends on the dumping and subsidizing margins of different producers from different countries.

The decision takes effect as of April 11, 2010.

An MOC official said it was the first anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation launched by China against imports from other countries.

The probes were justified and transparent, and proceeded according to Chinese laws and the rules of the World Trade Organization.