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Trade row escalates
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CHINA has decided to retaliate against Japan's trade curbs and will soon impose punitive tariffs on imports of some Japanese goods, a Chinese official has said.
Targeted Japanese commodities include cars, mobile and vehicle phones plus air conditioners, Gao Yan, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation (MOFTEC) announced in Beijing on Monday.
Gao said the action was in response to a two-month-old Japanese decision to slap tariffs of up to 266 per cent on Chinese spring onions, shiitake mushrooms and tatami rushes in an effort to protect Japanese farmers.
China's decision also formed a response to a more recent Japanese ban on imports of Chinese poultry which followed the alleged discovery of bird flu in Chinese ducks, the official said.
“The series of unjust trade limitation measures and discriminatory actions of Japan ... have seriously harmed the interests of various Chinese industries, enterprises, and producers,” Gao said.
Japan is China's largest trade partner, and goods worth US$28.6 billion were shipped between the two Asian giants in the first four months of the year, according to Chinese Customs statistics.
China's surplus with Japan from January to April reached US$640 million, a mere fraction of the US$8 billion surplus that China said it posted with number two trade partner the United States in the same period.
Chinese officials yesterday declined to say exactly how much duty on the Japanese goods would be hiked. They said details would be made public in the coming days.
Chinese officials hinted on the sidelines of an Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation trade ministers meeting earlier this month they were considering retaliation.
Chinese car importers said earlier their latest applications to bring in Japanese cars had been rejected in a tit-for-tat reprisal for Tokyo's import curbs.
China's imports of cars made by Toyota, Honda and Nissan could be affected, analysts said. Toyota exported around 10,000 vehicles to China in 2000.
(SD-Agencies)
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