China May Appeal to WTO over U.S. Steel Tariffs: Minister

China retains the right to appeal to the World Trade Organization against the United States over its decision to increase tariffs on steel imports, said Shi Guangsheng, China's foreign trade minister.

The minister said Tuesday that China considers the decision by the United States to increase tariffs on imported steel as an act of trade protectionism, and believes the move goes against the WTO rules.

The difficulty the U.S. steel sector encounters is not caused by steel imports, but by its own restructuring, said the minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation at a press conference on the sidelines of the on-going session of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

The move by the Bush administration has hampered the world's steel trade, the minister said, and it will not solve the difficulty of the U.S. steel industry, but has increased the burden on the consumers and weakened the competitiveness of its products.

"We are closely following the development of the situation, and the Chinese side will retain its rights to further reaction, including appeal to the WTO trade dispute mechanism," said the minister.

(Xinhua News Agency March 13, 2002)