The US government slapped preliminary anti-dumping duties on imports of more than US$300 million worth of wire decking from China, the Commerce Department said in a statement on Tuesday.

The department claimed that it preliminarily found dumping of wire decking from China after investigation. The tariffs of between 42.61 to 289 percent will be imposed and collected until a final determination is made in the case.

Wire decking reinforced with structural supports is designed generally for industrial and other commercial storage rack systems.

From 2006 to 2008, imports of wire decking from China increased 49 percent by value and amounted to an estimated US$317 million in 2008, according to the US Commerce Department.

Five US producers including AWP Industries Inc, ITC Manufacturing Inc, J&L Wire Cloth Inc, Nashville Wire Products Mfg Co Inc, and Wireway Husky Corporation filed petitions to ask for anti-dumping and countervailing duties last year.

On November 3, 2009, the Commerce Department set preliminary countervailing duties (CVD) ranging from 2.02 to 437.73 percent on the same product.

The United States has imposed duties on a variety of Chinese goods including steel pipes, grating and tubular goods based on other investigations.

The wire decking anti-dumping case is another move that might escalate trade disputes between the two major trade players in the world.

The trade barriers set by the US government were denounced by China as a "serious act of trade protectionism."

Economists warned that the protectionist moves by the Obama administration will ultimately hurt the US-China trade relations, which are becoming more and more important due to the global financial crisis.

Protectionism will hurt the fragile world economy which is just about to pull out of the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s, said Uri Dadush, senior associate and director in the Washington-based think tank Carnegie's International Economics Program.

(Xinhua News Agency January 6, 2010)