WTO sides with Obama administration on Chinese tire tariffs

The World Trade Organization’s dispute-settlement panel has sided with the Obama administration on a September 2009 decision to levy tariffs up to 35% on Chinese tires, the Wall Street Journal has reported. Both sides have sixty days to appeal the ruling.

The WTO panel, in its report, said the value of Chinese tire shipments to the U.S. nearly tripled between 2004 and 2008 to $1.8 billion. China countered that the rate of growth slowed between 2007 and 2008, and said U.S. trade officials had failed to account properly for the effect on U.S. producers of the broader slump in demand during the recession. The tires decision contrasted with a WTO ruling Friday that condemned antidumping tariffs imposed by the European Union on imports of Chinese screws, billed as Beijing’s biggest WTO victory yet in its fight against retaliatory tariffs imposed by the EU and U.S. That case centered on EU charges that Chinese companies were exporting goods below cost.