The Panel of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body ruled in favor of the US in a case on countervailing and anti-dumping duties imposed by China on grain-oriented silicon steel, used in power transformers, electric motors, and generators. The US claimed that such duties were in violation of the Antidumping Agreement, the Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (“SCM”) Agreement, and the GATT.

The US argued that China initiated the countervailing duty investigations without sufficient evidence to justify it. Therefore, the panel ruled that this violates Article 11.3 of the SCM Agreement.

Further, the US also argued that China failed to require the applicants to submit adequate non-confidential summaries. The Panel ruled in favor of the US stating that the summaries provided did not provide a reasonable understanding of the substance of the confidential information.

China earlier found that the dumped and subsidized imports had significant price effects. However the US argued that China’s analysis failed to reflect an objective examination of the evidence, and was not based on positive evidence. Therefore, the panel ruled that China’s acted inconsistently in its imposition of the antidumping duties and countervailing duties.