Compliance panel to probe China's implementation of WTO rulings

The Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) of World Trade Organization (WTO) Wednesday decided to form a panel of trade experts, as requested by the United States, to investigate China's implementation of WTO recommendations and rulings in a high-tech steel dispute between the two countries. The DSB made the decision at its regular meeting held on Wednesday, having accepted the establishment of a compliance panel to probe into China's compliance on the dispute concerning countervailing and anti-dumping duties on grain oriented flat-rolled electrical steel (GOES) from the US. In November 2012, the WTO concluded that China imposed duties on U.S. exports of GOES in breach of both procedural and substantive WTO rules. China has re-determined its duties on GOES from the United States to comply with WTO ruling since July last year. In January 2014, the U.S. requested consultations with China over the latter's implementation of WTO recommendations and rulings. The U.S. claimed that China has not fully complied with the WTO rulings, while China insisted otherwise. The investigation of the compliance panel will take 90 days. GOES is a high-tech, high-value magnetic specialty steel that is used primarily by the power generating industry in transformers, rectifiers, reactors, and large electric machines.