China’s government hit out at EU steel anti-dumping penalties on Tuesday, saying it would defend Chinese business and denied it was exporting its own overcapacity problems as critics have suggested.
Gao Hucheng, minister of commerce, told a press conference in Beijing that overcapacity in the metals industry was not just a Chinese problem. “Steel oversupply is a global problem and a global problem requires collaborative efforts by all countries,” he said.
“China safeguards the right to defend Chinese businesses in accordance with the rules of the World Trade Organisation,” he added, in an apparent threat to impose tit-for-tat penalties.