CHINA announced it will levy anti-dumping tariffs of up to 36.9 percent on a chemical imported from the European Union, the latest twist in a dispute with its largest trading partner, the Ministry of Commerce said today.
Starting tomorrow, the Chinese government will collect the punitive taxes upon EU-made toluidine, a substance used to produce dyes, medicines, pesticides and other products, for five years.
LANXESS Deutschland GmbH will pay a tariff rate of 19.6 percent while all others will have to pay 36.9 percent for toluidine exported to China, the ministry said.
"After a one-year investigation, we found the product was dumped in China and our toluidine industry has suffered material injury," the ministry said in a statement.
The ruling came after an escalating trade dispute between China and the EU. The dispute covers products including solar panels, telecom equipment, wine and steel pipes.
The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, imposed an average tariff of 11.8 percent earlier this month on solar panel imports from China. The rate will rise to more than 47 percent in August if negotiations fail to resolve the dispute. Soon afterwards, China announced an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy inquiry into sales of European wine.
Shen Danyang, a spokesman at the ministry, said on Tuesday that China's actions are based on investigations, not trade protection.
"We hope all other countries can carry out fair investigations into Chinese products and not allow them to become excuses for trade protectionism," Shen said.
Total trade between China and the 27-member EU dropped 2.8 percent from a year earlier in the first five months of this year.