China Floods the WTO With Tit-for-Tat
In disputes, China has moved from docility to defiance
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On May 8, China imposed extra import duties on stainless steel seamless tubes imported from the European Union and Japan, saying the tubes damaged the Chinese machinery they were installed in. The Chinese move came less than two months after the EU and Japan, along with the U.S., went to the World Trade Organization to challenge China’s curbs on exports of its rare earths, scarce minerals that are vital to so many industrial processes. The complaint argued that China’s restrictions on exports of the minerals would force multinationals to set up more factories on the mainland.