China may appeal WTO's decision to uphold U.S. tire tariff

(Bloomberg) -- China said it's "concerned about negative impact" from a World Trade Organization decision to uphold U.S. tariffs on Chinese tire imports.China may appeal the decision "at a proper time," the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement. The charges are "protectionist measures aimed to transfer domestic political pressure, and violate WTO rules," the ministry said.The WTO's judges rejected China's complaints that U.S. tariffs on Chinese car and light-truck tires violate global trade rules. U.S. President Barack Obama announced the three-year duties on $1.8 billion (12 billion yuan) of tires from China in September 2009, aiming to protect U.S. producers and workers.Trade complaints against China have surged since Barack Obama became president, as have retaliatory steps by the Chinese government. China complains of U.S. protectionism, while the U.S. says it's enforcing trade rules.In the first nine months of this year, China ran up a $201 billion trade surplus with the United States, more than the U.S. deficit with the next seven largest trading partners combined, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.That gap has made China a target for the U.S. Congress.The complaints filed by the United Steelworkers union, which represents 15,000 employees at 13 tire plants in the U.S, was the largest so-called safeguard petition to protect U.S. producers from increased imports from China.The union said Chinese tire exports to the U.S. tripled from 2001 to 2004 to 41 million units, and called for a cap on annual imports of 21 million tires.

China may appeal WTO's decision to uphold U.S. tire tariff

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