On March 8 (Washington Time), the US President Trump announced that the imported steel and aluminum products have threatened the U.S. national security, and the US decides to levy tariff on all imported steel and aluminum products except those imported from Canada and Mexico, with a tariff rate of 25% and 10% respectively. Head of MOFCOM Trade Remedy and Investigation Bureau Wang Hejun commented on it.

Wang Hejun pointed out that the U.S. measures are trade protectionism under the guise of national security. In fact, most of the U.S. imported steel and aluminum products are goods for civilian use, having nothing to do with threatening the U.S. national security. The U.S. abused the article of national security exceptions, and vandalized the multilateral trading system represented by the WTO, which will cause serious impact on the normal international trade order. China firmly opposes it.

Wang Hejun pointed out that, China has noticed that some of the WTO members like EU, Brazil, ROK, Australia, Turkey and Russia are strongly against the U.S. action, and showed that they would take powerful counter measures against the wrong doings of the U.S.. China has expressed its stand and concerns from many levels and channels, and made serious negotiation with the U.S.. China will, on the basis of evaluating China’s loss caused by the U.S. measures, take powerful measures to safeguard our legitimate rights and interests firmly.

Wang Hejun emphasized that the U.S. measures not only harm the interests of the other countries, but also contradict its own interests. The U.S. member of congress, industrial organizations and enterprises strongly opposed these measures. China urged the U.S. to respect the authority of multilateral trading system and repeal the related measures as soon as possible.