US Imposes Tariffs On Chinese TV Sets, Increases Possibility Of Trade War

by Mary Swire, for LawAndTax-News.com, Hong Kong

27 November 2003

The United States Commerce Department has announced that it intends to impose tariffs of between 28% and 46% on imports of Chinese-manufactured televisions, increasing the prospect of a trade war between the two countries.

This follows recently announced plans to cap certain Chinese textile imports by imposing quotas on imports of Chinese-made knit fabrics, bras, and robes. This would cap the rise in textile shipments from the country at around 7.5% above the last year's total, and caused the Chinese authorities to hint at the possibility of retaliation under the auspices of the World Trade Organisation.

This new development comes as a result of complaints from US television manufacturers that imports from China and Malaysia had increased from 210,00 sets in 2000, to 2.65 million in 2002.

According to the Commerce Department, the duties are set to take effect on December 1, but will be retroactive from September 1.

China's Ministry of Commerce has announced that it is "gravely concerned" over the latest US anti-dumping move, which brings the number of anti-dumping investigations brought against China by the United States this year to seven, involving a total trade value of $1.6 billion.

According to the AFX news service, a Ministry of Commerce official pointed out following the US announcement that the majority of components for Chinese televisions are imported from the US, Japan, and other countries.

"Under such circumstances, it is very hard to understand the US move to impose such high dumping tariffs on Chinese enterprises unless the US regards these nations and regions as having dumped color television parts on China," he observed.

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