BEIJING (RT) - China has made an appeal to the World Trade Organization (WTO) over historic duties introduced by Australia concerning three Chinese products as part of a crackdown on unfair trade practices, including dumping.
Speaking on Thursday, Gao Feng, a Chinese commerce ministry spokesman, said that Beijing would be appealing against Australian measures which added additional duties to imports of Chinese railway wheels, wind towers, and stainless-steel sinks.
“(China) hopes that the Australian side will take concrete action to correct the wrong practices and avoid distortions to the trade of related products, so that trade will return to a normal track as soon as possible,” Gao said.
Australia’s trade minister, Dan Tehan, said Canberra was surprised by the Chinese move, noting that they had not received any prior notification of China’s appeal to the WTO.
“The normal course of events would be that you would get some notification of their concerns about the measures we put in place through the relevant WTO committee or through officials raising it through bilateral channels,” he told reporters in Canberra, adding that this had not happened.