China Slaps EU With Potato Starch Duties

China on Sep. 16, 2011 said it would stick countervailing duties on potato starch from the European Union to protect Chinese producers, stacking the taxes on top of existing anti-dumping duties.

Importers of EU potato starch will from Sept. 17 pay duty of 7.5 percent to 12.4 percent for five years, China's Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on its website (www.mofcom.gov.cn).

"According to the results of the investigation ... subsidies existed for EU-produced imports of potato starch and China's domestic potato starch producer suffered substantial damage related to those subsidies," the statement said.

The ruling was the final word in China's year-old, first countervailing duties investigation against the EU. It released initial findings in the case in May.

In April, China slapped separate anti-dumping duties of 12.6 percent to 56.7 percent on EU potato starch.

China is the EU's second-biggest trade partner behind the United States and the 27-nation bloc's exports to China rose 8.4 percent in 2010 to 113.1 billion euros.

But its bilateral trade deficit with China reached 168.8 billion euros in 2010. That gap has prompted EU anti-dumping actions that have angered Beijing and also fuelled persistent EU complaints that China maintains unfair barriers against European goods and services.