11th - 24th June

• Published 25 Jun 2009

US speaks up over China export duties and censorship moves. The national pension fund gets a double boost and Beijing sets stage for mainland listings to resume. Meanwhile, the World Bank revises China's growth forecast upwards, despite May trade slump.

US and EU lodge trade case against ChinaOn June 23, the US and European Union lodged a joint case at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), complaining that China's export duties on raw materials such as coking coal were distorting the global market and hurting their manufacturers of steel and other products. "We are most troubled that this appears to be a conscious policy to create unfair preferences for Chinese industries by making raw materials cheaper for China's companies...and goods more economical for them to produce," Ron Kirk, US trade representative, told the Financial Times. The Chinese ministry of commerce rejected the charges the following day. "The main objective of China's relevant export policies is to protect the environment and natural resources. China believes the policies in question are in keeping with WTO rules...Following the WTO procedures for dispute resolution, China will appropriately handle the request for consultations," the ministry was quoted as saying by Reuters. Beijing also retaliated that day with its own request for the WTO to investigate US restrictions on the import of Chinese poultry products. The US and China banned imports of each other's poultry in 2004 after outbreaks of bird flu but China lifted its ban in September last year while the US has refused on concerns over the spread of the virus and other health and safety scandals in China.

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Other Articles on this Issue

• Macro View

  China's Yin-Yang Dynamic

• Forbidden City

  A new era for financial reform

• Funds Data

  Taiwan into the shadows

• The Best of Chinese Commentators

  Stock, lock and China's pension fund

  Should Beijing levy property tax?

• In Depth

  Property enters third phase

• The Big Call

  Export gloom to brighten

• Consumer China

  Alcoholic drinks: Untapped promise

  Changyu borne on tide

  Wuliangye climbs value chain

  Tsingtao set fair

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