China opposes US subsidy investigations on its pipes and sacks

BEIJING -- China strongly opposes U.S. charges it is unfairly subsidizing the manufacture of its steel pipes and woven sacks for export, the Commerce Ministry said Wednesday, in a further sign of trade friction between the countries.

China is "strongly unsatisfied" and "firmly opposed" to a recent U.S. Commerce Department ruling that says China is subsidizing companies making rectangular pipes and laminated woven sacks for export, Wang Xinpei, a ministry spokesman said in a posting on the ministry's Web site.

As the U.S. trade deficit with China has ballooned, reaching $232.5 billion last year, tensions over China's growing exports and the level of its currency have grown, with the United States filing more antidumping investigations against Chinese goods.

On Nov. 27, the U.S. Commerce Department said China is unfairly subsidizing its laminated woven sack industry that make sacks to package dog food and birdseed. Exports grew by 80 percent between 2004 and 2006. It said the same about rectangular pipes and tubes that are used for fencing, window guards and railings.

American companies can petition the U.S. Commerce Department and International Trade Commission to investigate practices they say can unfairly harm their business.

In May, the U.S. Commerce Department imposed duties on imports of Chinese glossy paper that attracted attention because it reversed 23 years of U.S. policy by treating China as a nonmarket economy.

China launched a protest at the World Trade Organization against that decision, and it was later repealed.

Since October the U.S. has launched similar claims about Chinese welded steel pipes and thermal paper.