China "regrets" Canada's investigations into Chinese well casings

China's Ministry of Commerce voiced regret on Thursday over Canada's initiation of investigations into the alleged injurious dumping and subsidizing of seamless carbon or alloy steel oil and gas well casings imported from China.

Wang Xinpei, spokesman of China's Ministry of Commerce, said the government regretted that the Canadian authorities treated China's iron and steel industry as a non-market-oriented industry and started investigations without adequate legal and factual support.

The investigations failed to comply with World Trade Organization (WTO) regulations and to measure up to the Canadian criteria for investigation, said Wang.

Canada was the first country to initiate anti-subsidizing investigations into Chinese products and had so far carried out five anti-dumping and anti-subsidizing investigations and four re-investigations into Chinese exports.

By investigating so frequently, the Canadian authorities had been sending the wrong signal to other WTO members, said Wang, adding that it would hurt the sustainable and steady development of bilateral trade.

He hoped the Canadian authorities would carry out the investigations in strict accordance with WTO regulations and Canadian law and in an impartial and transparent way.

China would retain the right of appeal to the WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism, he said.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) announced the initiation of its investigations on Aug. 13 following a complaint filed by TenarisAlgomaTubes Inc. of Calgary, Alberta.

The Canadian International Trade tribunal has begun a preliminary inquiry to determine whether the imports are harming Canadian producers and will issue a decision by Oct. 12, according to a CBSA statement.

The CBSA is investigating whether the imports are being dumped or subsidized and will make a decision by Nov. 9. If it determined a large increase in harmful imports and the tribunal decided that retroactive anti-dumping or countervailing duties were justified, duty could be levied on the goods brought into Canada from Aug. 13.

Canada imposes anti-dumping duties on several imports from the Chinese mainland, including bicycles and bicycle frames, carbon steel fasteners, laminated flooring, leather safety footwear, rubber waterproof footwear, fresh garlic, copper pipe fitting, wood slats, hot-rolled carbon steel and high-strength low alloy steel plate, hot-rolled carbon and alloy steel sheet and strip, according to the Hong Kong Trade Development Council.