(VietNamNet) China government strongly opposed to the US’ penalty tariff on China’s coated free sheet (CFS) exports for anti-subsidy reason, said China’s Trade Ministry spokesman on Saturday March 31st.

On Friday March 30th, the US Department of Commerce announced the preliminary decision to apply the US anti-subsidy duty to CFS imports from China (CFS is the name of the high-gloss paper, imported per sheet base, pulp rate under 10%, commonly used in printing high-grade products such as magazines, catalogues, labels…)

In response to this information, China’s Ministry of Commerce held a press conference to show their objection. "This action of the US side goes against the consensus reached by the leaders of both countries to resolve differences through dialogue," commerce ministry spokesman Wang Xinpei said, according to the Xinhua news agency.

' China strongly request the US side to reconsider the decision and make prompt changes,' Wang said. He also said that China will follow the case to protect its legal rights.

As of 1984, the US issued the rule about treatment to goods from non-market economies in which, goods from these countries are not subject to anti-subsidy duty. So far this rule has been applies as a precedent and hasn’t been changed.

Mr. Wang said that the US recent decision is a bad move which did not follow the recent precedents applied at the US courts and the Department of Commerce’s common practices.

Despite the strong objections from China side, the US applies anti-subsidy law to China while, at the same time, considers this country a so-called non-market economy. 'The decision brings great harm to the interests and faith of Chinese businesspeople and is not acceptable,' Wang said.

According to statistics from the US Department of Commerce, imports of high-gloss paper from China soared by 177 percent over last year, estimated worth of  US$ 224 million in 2006.

In October, 2006, New Page Corp. brought a case against companies from China, Korea and Indonesia with regard to high-gloss paper product.

In December 15th, 2006 the US’s International Trade Commission (ITC) announced “the US paper producers are harmed by the CFS imported from China, Korea and Indonesia”, and sent case file to the DoC to investigate the kind of trade infringement and calculate the penalty tariff.