An anti-dumping investigation plea against Chinese imports by European aluminum wheel manufacturers runs counter to World Trade Organization rules and the country was preparing to fight the claims, a source from the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said.

The European Wheel Association (EWA), which represents six aluminum wheel manufacturers in the continent, filed a petition with European Member States (EMS) in June claiming that Chinese aluminum wheel manufacturers were dumping their products in the European market, and that this was harming the local industry.

"The EWA move is against WTO rules. Its petition to the EMS did not mention the names of the six European manufacturers; that is not allowed," the MOFCOM source said.

The EWA also compared Turkey with China when it came to calculating the labor cost of producing the aluminum wheels. As a result, China was accused of dumping goods to Europe at an unreasonably low price.

"It's unfair that they (European enterprises) did not admit China's market economy status (MES) when they filed the petition for an anti-dumping investigation, and it is also unreasonable of them to use Turkey as the substitute nation," the MOFCOM source explained.

As a pre-condition to joining the WTO in 2001, China agreed that WTO members could deny the country's status as a market economy for 15 years.

"We are actively working on collecting material for the coming investigation to show that Chinese companies have not disrupted their market," said Chen Bing, the general manager of Zhejiang-based Wanfeng Auto Wheels, a major aluminum wheel manufacturer and exporter.

"It's unfair to be treated this way, it's a sort of trade protectionism. We will actively respond to the investigation," he said.

Although Wanfeng was the second largest exporter of aluminum wheels in the country, only "a small quantity of our products sells overseas", Chen said.

Chinese aluminum wheels accounted for merely 8 percent of European imports between July 2008 and May this year. "It's unnecessary to initiate this investigation as Chinese products have not harmed the European industry," said the MOFCOM source.

Chinese aluminum wheels have been widely used as automobile parts by European auto companies, including Audi and Volkswagen. The anti-dumping case will hurt their supply chain, the MOFCOM source pointed out.

Last Monday, the MOFCOM received a notice from EMS about the EWA application. The official investigation is expected to start within 10 days.

The anti-dumping case is the third that Europe has launched against China this year, and also the largest by volume, at $400 million.

(China Daily August 11, 2009)