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China has hinted at possible tit-for-tat action against trade barriers imposed by the United States last week, as relations between the two economic superpowers become increasingly fraught.
On Sunday, China’s Ministry of Commerce said it was launching an anti-dumping probe into polyoxymethylene or POM copolymers, a thermoplastic used in various industries ranging from auto parts to electronics, imported from the US, the European Union, Taiwan and Japan.
Thermoplastics are malleable when heated but become fixed in a solid shape when cooled, and can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc.
The investigation should take a year to complete, but may be extended by another six months, the ministry added.
The announcement comes days after President Joe Biden said that tariffs on $18 billion worth of imports of Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) and an array of other products would soar over the next two years.
EVs imported from China will see their tariffs nearly quadruple from 27.5% to 100%, a policy lever meant to challenge Beijing’s practice of encouraging aggressively low pricing by domestic EV manufacturers while levying a 40% tariff on US car imports.
The White House said the measures were designed to protect American workers and businesses in the face of China’s unfair trade practices, including “flooding global markets with artificially low-priced exports.”
In response, China has vowed to take “all necessary actions to protect its legitimate rights.”
The EU is also investigating state support for Chinese EV makers and, if it finds that their prices are artificially low, it will announce extra import duties by early July.
