Recently, the Canadian government recently announced that it would impose tariffs and other restrictive measures on electric vehicles and steel and aluminum products imported from China. In response, China’s Ministry of Commerce said it will take all necessary measures to defend the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.
On August 26, Canada announced that it would follow the example of the United States and the European Union and impose tariffs of 100% and 25% on Chinese imports of electric vehicles and steel and aluminum products, which will come into effect on October 1 and October 15, respectively.
In this regard, on September 3, China’s Ministry of Commerce spokesman said that the Canadian side, despite the opposition and discouragement of many parties, discriminatory unilateral restrictive measures on imports from China, China is strongly dissatisfied with and resolutely opposed to this, and intends to put the Canadian side’s relevant practices to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism.
China will launch an “anti-discrimination investigation” into the relevant restrictive measures taken by Canada in accordance with the provisions of Article 7 and Article 36 of the Foreign Trade Law of the People’s Republic of China, and will take corresponding measures against Canada according to the actual situation.
In addition, according to China’s domestic industry recently reflected that Canada’s exports of rapeseed to China increased significantly and suspected of dumping, amounting to 3.47 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, the number of year-on-year growth of 170%, the price continued to fall. Influenced by the unfair competition from the Canadian side, China’s domestic rapeseed-related industries continue to lose money.
China will launch an anti-dumping investigation into imports of rapeseed from Canada in accordance with relevant domestic laws and regulations and WTO rules in accordance with the law. China will also launch an anti-dumping investigation on relevant chemical products from Canada in accordance with the application of the domestic industry.
China’s attitude is clear, and will take all necessary measures to defend the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.
This is not the first time that China has taken measures to defend the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.
Previously, the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act to use the U.S. and other specific regional products as the premise of subsidies, excluding China and other WTO members products, artificial barriers to trade; the European Union has launched a countervailing investigation of Chinese electric vehicles, and subsequently announced the imposition of high tariffs.
In response to the behavior of the U.S. and the EU, China has actively taken action to defend the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises, and safeguard the rights and interests of the development of the electric vehicle industry and global cooperation on green transformation.
On March 26, China applied to the World Trade Organization’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) for consultations on the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and its implementing regulations regarding subsidies for new energy vehicles, etc. On July 15, China sent a letter to the Chairman of the DSB requesting the DSB to set up a panel of experts on the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Certain Tax Credits case.
On August 9, China took the EU’s provisional countervailing measures on electric vehicles to the WTO dispute settlement mechanism.