China strongly opposes the U.S. Commerce Department's decision to impose anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Chinese steel products, said Yao Jian, spokesman with the Ministry of Commerce, on September 15.

The U.S. Commerce Department said on September 13 that it would impose final anti-dumping duties ranging from 48.99 percent to 98.74 percent to offset below-market pricing by Chinese exporters and it would levy final countervailing duties of 13.66 percent to 53.65 percent to offset Chinese government subsidies.

The U.S. side disregarded the fact that China is a developing country and had hurt the interests of Chinese industries by applying the trade remedies repeatedly.

Since 2007, the U.S. side launched anti-dumping and countervailing investigations on 15 kinds of Chinese steel products with a total value of nearly $7 billion. The investigations usually resulted in tariffs being imposed and involved products making up about one third of China's steel exports to the United States.

These investigations have a negative impact on bilateral trade, Yao said.