On Dec.10, 2007, the U.S. Department of Commerce made its preliminary countervailing determination on off-the-road tires from China, which determined that the Chinese enterprises involved enjoy many subsidies and a temporary countervailing duty shall be imposed upon them. The Chinese side has expressed strong dissatisfaction over and firm opposition to such a decision.
According to the Ministry of Commerce website, the U.S. decided not to impose countervailing duties on the so-called "non-market economies" in 1984, and such a practice had already been established as a legal precedent in the U.S. judicial lawsuits. MOFCOM says the U.S. is "turning a deaf ear to the U.S. law as well as its own consistent practice", and says the U.S. Department of Commerce has made unfair determinations after having conducted five successive countervailing investigations, leading to frequent countervailing appeals by US industries on the products from China. MOFCOM says such practices are by no means conducive to the normal development of the bilateral trade and economic ties.
A MOFCOM press release says, "unjust determination by the US side was not only violating its own law and the multilateral rules, but also self-evident of its discrimination against the Chinese enterprises as well as its prejudice against the development pattern of Chinese economy, inciting the US trade protectionism, impairing the interests of the Chinese industries, which can not be accepted by the Chinese government or the Chinese industries."
The Chinese side said it shall reserve its rights of taking further measures to safeguard the well-being of its enterprises.