US: Steel given green light to seek China import ban

The US has given the go-ahead for the country’s largest steel producer to seek a ban on imports from Chinese rivals, in the first known case in which trade sanctions could be used in retaliation for alleged China government-backed hacking of commercial secrets.

The move comes ahead of a meeting of senior US and Chinese officials in Beijing next week. It highlights the increasingly aggressive tactics the US steel industry is using to fight back against the flood of cheap Chinese steel that has hit global markets in recent years, as well as the growing international concerns about industrial overcapacity in China.

Depending on the outcome the development could eventually result in the next president authorising a blanket ban on imports of Chinese steel in retaliation for the alleged hacking.

“Trade disputes between China and The US should be addressed in accordance with World Trade Organisation principles,” Zhu Guangyao, China’s vice-finance minister, said at a briefing in Beijing on Thursday. “We are opposed to abusive trade remedy measures.”

US Steel in late April filed the case under the US’s “Section 337” rule, which allows trade sanctions for intellectual property theft. It alleged that some four dozen Chinese companies and their US subsidiaries had both acted as a cartel and benefited from the cyber theft of its production secrets.

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