Japan on Tuesday decried the Chinese government's decision to slap anti-dumping tariffs on certain steel imports as arbitrary and unfair.
"We insist that Japanese steel makers are not guilty of dumping and have not damaged the Chinese stainless steel industry," International Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma said.
"This Chinese decision is very disappointing and very regrettable," he told a regular news conference.
China said on Monday it was imposing punitive duties on importers of cold-rolled stainless steel from Japan and South Korea for the next five years.
The decision caps more than a year of investigations into Japanese and South Korean producers of the steel -- used in a wide range of industries from aerospace to telecommunications and household electronics.
Japanese and South Korean steel makers had dumped their products at unfairly low prices on the Chinese market, resulting "in substantial injury to relevant Chinese industries," the Xinhua news agency said.
An official at the ministry of foreign trade told AFP in Beijing that the value of imports affected by the decision was unclear.
Japan has reacted angrily to punitive tariffs slapped by the United States against its steel imports, but had not previously been targeted by China, which has had its own anti-dumping regime since 1997.
But China has broken World Trade Organization rules in failing to inform Japan's government of how it had assessed the alleged dumping practices of Japanese cold-rolled stainless steel producers, Kyodo News said.
"The final ruling is likely to increase concern in Japan over projectionist moves in China ahead of its anticipated accession to the WTO," it said -- TOKYO (AFP)
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