China counter-challenges U.S. over subsidies at WTO

China has filed a complaint at the World Trade Organisation to challenge U.S. countervailing duties, tariffs charged on Chinese goods that the United States considers to be unfairly subsidized. The WTO ...

As you may recall, when the United States passed a law in March 2012 overruling a couple federal court decisions and retroactively applying US law to scads of completed countervailing duty investigations of Chinese imports, I explained that the law's illogical, biased structure - in particular, not addressing WTO-inconsistent "double counting" in any case completed before the law's enactment - all but guaranteed at least one WTO cha

GENEVA (Reuters) - China filed a complaint at the World Trade Organization on Monday to challenge a new U.S. law on "countervailing duties", or tariffs intended to combat export-promoting subsidies. The complaint, filed hours after the United States said it would launch a wide-ranging trade complaint against China's support for car exports, potentially affects close to 30 products that have previously been targeted by U.S. duties, a trade official familiar with the case said. ...

Tomorrow, the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce preliminary anti-dumping duties on Chinese solar panels in the latest chapter of the US-China dispute over trade in "green" goods.

GENEVA (Reuters) - India has launched a trade dispute to challenge duties on certain steel products, the World Trade Organization said on its website on Thursday. The WTO gave no details but said India had "requested consultations" with the United States - the first stage of a formal trade dispute - over U.S. countervailing duties. Countries impose countervailing duties to offset another country's subsidies suspected of giving an unfair trade advantage. (Reporting by Tom Miles)

I'm sure I'll have plenty to say about last night's election results (other than an admission that my groundless prediction was obviously wrong), but tonight I'd like to focus on the latest reminders that the global mess surrounding green subsidies waits for no one man or election. First, the US International Trade Commission unanimously found today that dumped/subsidized Chinese solar cells are injuring US solar manufacturers:

Late last week the Chinese government announced new anti-dumping and countervailing duty (anti-subsidy) investigations of US and Korean imports of polysilicon - a primary input for the production of solar panels. China is investigating whether exporters from the U.S. and South Korea sold solar-grade polysilicon below cost, a practice known as dumping, as part of a probe following complaints from four domestic companies.

GENEVA (Reuters) - China filed a complaint at the World Trade Organization on Monday to challenge a new U.S.