It said China is also studying counter measures in order to protect the legal interests of the domestic iron and steel industry.

The remarks were made in response to an earlier announcement by the United States that it will appeal against the decision.

A panel of the WTO concluded on Friday in its reports that the US safeguard measures on imports of some steel products run contrary to WTO rules and should be immediately set aside.

The eight plaintiffs - the European Union, Japan, South Korea, China, Switzerland, Norway, New Zealand and Brazil - had welcomed the panel's decision and called for the United States to at once end its safeguard measures.

But the United States, instead of complying with the panel's ruling, announced its intention to lodge an appeal with the WTO against the panel's decision.

"We have noted the United States is to take such action. We will continue to collaborate with seven other plaintiffs to make sure that the WTO retains the panel's present decision," a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce told reporters yesterday.

He said the ministry had also taken note of the EU's announcement that it is ready to retaliate if the United States refuses to accept the WTO decision within five days of the final judgement, not expected until early next year, being made.

An EU spokesman recently announced that the body had prepared a list of US products against which it will implement sanction measures if the United States fails to comply with the WTO decision.

"As one of the plaintiffs, China is closely watching the development of the issue, studying counteractive measures to protect the rightful interests of the domestic iron and steel sector," said the spokesman.

The US government adopted steel tariffs of up to 30 percent in March 2002 in order to protect the US iron and steel industry. The measure triggered a new round of trade protectionism in the global steel industry and attracted criticism from all its major trading partners.

More disturbing than the safeguard measures in themselves is the US Government's inclination towards trade protectionism, said Chinese trade officials.

The United States is a pioneer of trade liberalization in the WTO Uruguay Round as well as a major beneficiary. Its leanings towards trade protectionism jeopardizes the ongoing Doha round of WTO talks, they opined.

The US safeguard measures have caused minimal damage to China's steel industry, which is largely dependent on the domestic market, said officials from the China Association for Iron and Steel Industries.

China exports only about US$150 million in iron and steel products to the United States annually, according to statistics from the association.

They said China's participation in suing the United States is more a practice of making use of the WTO trade dispute settlement body to legally protect domestic industries.

As a new WTO member, such practical application is vital to familiarizing China with procedures and techniques, they said.

The latest WTO statistics reported that China, with 27 investigations into its exports, tops the list of countries subject to anti-dumping investigations between July 1 and December 31, 2002, down by two from the 29 investigations launched against Chinese exports during the second half of 2001.

Exports from China were also the subject of the largest number of final measures, 18 in total, imposed during the second half of 2002, a slight fall from the 21 measures imposed during the second half of 2001.

Until the end of last October, 33 countries and regions had begun 502 anti-dumping cases against China, involving US$16 billion in exports, according to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Commerce.

(China Daily July 16, 2003)