According to information released by the Bureau of Fair Trade for Imports and Exports of the Ministry of Commerce, in 2008 the US continued its previous momentum of launching frequent trade remedy investigations against Chinese products.

The US launched five cases involving a combination of anti dumping and countervailing investigations against Chinese products, for example stainless steel pressure pipes. This is only slightly lower than the seven cases in 2007. The value involved in the investigations engaged in 2008 was USD 510 million.

The US launched five anti dumping investigations against Chinese products, such as uncovered innerspring units involving a total of USD 280 million. In addition, the US launched one anti circumvention investigation, a case involving Chinese cut to length carbon steel plates.

In 2008, the US also made final determinations on the 7 combined anti dumping and countervailing investigation cases and 6 anti dumping cases previously launched against China. In specific terms, for the 7 combined anti dumping and countervailing investigation cases, including a case involving standard steel pipes, the average countervailing duty rates ranged from 5.62% to 226.85% and the average anti dumping tax rates ranged from 9.48% to 249.12%.

With the exception of one case, which involved off road tires, the combined countervailing duty and anti dumping taxes in the cases were relatively high. Among the final determinations of the 6 anti dumping cases, cases involving steel nails and one or two enterprises in polyethylene terephthalate film resulted to relatively low tax rates involved. The other cases were closed with tax rates higher than 50%.

According to Chinese customs, China - US trade increased by 11.6% YoY over January to November of the year. The speed is 3.9 percentage points lower than the same period last year.