The Ministry of Commerce of China File photo: VCG

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Friday that China is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposes Canadian government's tightening of restrictions on steel imports.

The remarks are made as comments after the Department of Finance Canada on July 16, local time, issued an announcement stating that in response to US steel tariffs and global steel overcapacity, starting from August 1, the scope of application of import steel tariff quotas will be expanded, existing quotas will be tightened, and additional taxes will be imposed on imports outside the quota. In addition, a 25 percent additional tax will be imposed on products containing steel melted and cast in China imported from countries other than the US.

A spokesperson for MOFCOM said that on the grounds of protecting its own industry, Canada announced unilateral measures such as imposing tariffs on products containing Chinese steel components. The relevant practices violated WTO rules, disrupted the international trade order, and harmed China's interests.

It is a typical unilateral and protectionist behavior. China is strongly dissatisfied with this and firmly opposes it, the spokesperson said. 

In fact, the main reason for the difficulties faced by Canada's domestic steel industry is the unilateral tariff measures of the US, but the Canadian government has avoided the main contradiction and tried to shift the damage to the industry to other trading partners including China, the spokesperson of MOFCOM said.

Canada's actions are unreasonable, illegal and unhelpful, and will seriously damage the normal economic and trade cooperation between China and Canada, the spokesperson added. 

China urges Canada to immediately correct its wrong practices and cease restrictive measures, in the interest of upholding the multilateral trading system and the broader China-Canada economic and trade relations. China will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies, the spokesperson said.

Global Times