China urges WTO members to timely abandon Surrogate Country approach in anti-dumping measures against Chinese exports

Chinese representatives has stated that WTO members must timely abandon the Surrogate Country approach used in their anti-dumping measures against Chinese exports.

During a meeting of WTO Council for Trade in Goods in Geneva on Thursday, the Chinese representatives pointed out that according to Article 15 of China's Protocol of Accession to the WTO, WTO members shall stop using the surrogate or analogue country prices by December 11 2016, to calculate the dumping margins in their anti-dumping measures against Chinese exports.

When the Surrogate Country approach is in effect, a third country or region's prices can be used to assess if a given country is exporting below market value or dumping.

The Chinese representatives said that China urges WTO members to strictly fulfill their obligations under Article 15, and timely abandon the surrogate country approach, so as to safeguard the authority and credibility of the multilateral trading system,

They pointed out that it is a commitment undertaken by all the WTO members 15 years ago to put an end to the surrogate country approach against China by the end of 2016.

"This is an explicit legal obligation contained in China's Accession Protocol and has nothing to do with other issues such as overcapacity. WTO members shall not attempt to evade this international obligation by seeking any excuse," the Chinese representatives stressed.

"Whether China is a 'market economy'or not is one thing, and elimination of surrogate country approach is another. These are two different issues and should not be mixed together," they added. Endit