US refuses to block tariffs on Chinese paper-product imports

The US Court of International Trade has refused to block US tariffs on Chinese paper-product imports, a decision that has potentially market-wide implications for trans-Pacific trade. Both the Wall Street Journal and New York Times underlined the significantly broader importance of this case, with the WSJ pointing to a potential reversal of “two decades of precedent in trade cases”. Yesterday’s decision by the federal court in New York centres on a complaint by NewsPage Corp, which alleges that it faces unfair competition from government-subsidised Chinese paper companies. Now that the court has denied China’s temporary injunction request, the US Commerce Department will decide shortly – possibly today – whether to impose tariffs on imports of Chinese paper products. Since the 1980s, the Commerce Department has not considered Chinese government subsidy cases on the grounds that China was a “non-market economy”, explained the WSJ. But that may soon change. According to the NYT, the impact of Thursday’s ruling and of a shift in the Commerce Department’s policy could be “far reaching” and “could set a precedent for duties to be imposed on steel, machinery, plastics, furniture and other goods from China”.