World Trade Organization judges agreed to rule on the legality of Chinese anti-dumping duties on U.S. steel products and restrictions on companies such as Visa Inc. (V) and MasterCard Inc. (MA) that process credit-card payments.

The U.S. is protesting limits on payment processing because China favors a monopoly provider, China UnionPay Data Co., and prohibits foreign companies from issuing their own bank cards denominated in its currency, building networks to support such cards or handling interbank point-of-sale transactions.

Foreign banks must “co-brand” with Chinese operators to supply these services and execute payments through UnionPay. The U.S. says the rules conflict with the pledge China made when it joined the WTO in 2001 to open up its credit- and debit-card markets to foreign processing companies by the end of 2006.

WTO judges in Geneva will also rule on the legality of dumping duties China applied to more than $200 million of American-made steel products. The complaint involves dumping and countervailing duties China has placed on flat-rolled electrical steel, which is produced by companies such as West Chester, Ohio-based AK Steel Holding Corp. (AKS), the third-largest U.S. steelmaker.

China, which has the world’s biggest steel market, said in 2009 it would impose anti-dumping and subsidy levies of as much as 25 percent on flat-rolled electrical steel products, used in transformers, reactors and electric machines. China said the duties aim to counter below-cost or “dumped” imports.

Heads, Tails

“The trade remediation process is like everything else in China,” said Michelle Applebaum, a lecturer at Lake Forest College in Chicago and equity analyst at Steel Market Intelligence. “Those charged with trade violations have no due process, no explanation of the charges and penalties and no opportunity for defense. The Chinese government rules by fiat, and it’s ‘heads I win, tails you lose.’”

The U.S. says China didn’t follow WTO procedures by failing to disclose the facts underlying its legal conclusions and not explaining its calculations.