China wins WTO dispute with Australia over steel products

SYDNEY (AP) — China has won a nearly three-year-long dispute with Australia at the World Trade Organization over tariffs on steel products that began during a low point of bilateral relations between the countries. Australia’s Trade Minister Don Farrell said in a statement Wednesday that Canberra accepted the WTO’s ruling and supported a rules-based trading system. Beijing took its complaint to the WTO in June 2021 over Australia’s extra duties on railway wheels, wind towers and stainless steel sinks imported from China. Trade in these products was worth 62 million Australian dollars ($40.4 million) in 2022. On Tuesday, the WTO panel adjudicating the case in Geneva, Switzerland, found that Australia’s investigating authority had acted inconsistently with some articles of the anti-dumping agreement.