China strongly opposes the United States' preliminary ruling on dual investigations into steel tubes and woven sacks imported from China, a spokesman with the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Tuesday. 

The US Department of Commerce ruled on November 27 that Chinese companies that produce light-walled rectangular pipes and tubes and laminated woven sacks receive government subsidies.

Wang Xinpei, MOFCOM's spokesman, said China is deeply unhappy with and resolutely opposes the US practice of continuing to launch anti-subsidy probes into Chinese-made products after similar investigations into coated free sheet paper and carbon steel tubes.

The use of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures infringes US rules and the tradition of not adopting anti-subsidy measures against non-market economies, which has been practiced since 1984, Wang stated.

On October 29, the US decided to initiate combined anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations into Chinese-made lightweight thermal paper, the latest and also seventh such probe targeting Chinese products.

This has led to frequent anti-subsidy probes that are not conducive to normal bilateral trade relations, he said.

The US Department of Commerce refused to take evidence from the Chinese side and even ruled out that the textile industry, which has nothing to do with the case, gets government policy loans, Wang stated.

The ruling has hurt greatly the interests and feelings of Chinese industry and is not acceptable to China, the spokesman said.

China will continue to use legal means and necessary WTO dispute settlement mechanism to protect the legitimate rights and interests of domestic companies, he added.

(Xinhua News Agency December 5, 2007)