Improper use of trade remedy measures will not only harm China's aluminum foil exports, but also weaken the competitiveness of U.S. downstream industries, affect U.S. employment and harm the interests of U.S. consumers, a Chinese official said Wednesday.
He made the comments in response to the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC)'s Tuesday (U.S. time) announcement that it has initiated anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations of the matter.
"The aluminum industries in China and the U.S. are highly complementary. The U.S. started to reduce the production of low value-added aluminum foil and focused on manufacturing and exporting high-end aluminum more than 20 years ago. Hence, the downturn in U.S. production of aluminum foil is not caused by imports from China," said Wang Hejun, head of the Ministry of Commerce's trade remedy and investigation bureau, in a statement.
In the U.S., the Aluminum Association Trade Enforcement Working Group complained that Chinese companies sell aluminum foil products at unfairly low prices by getting subsidies, the Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.
In 2016, U.S. imports of aluminum foil from China were estimated at $389 million, data from the DOC showed.
