WASHINGTON, Feb 6 — China filed a World Trade Organisation complaint on Wednesday against US President Donald Trump's new 10 per cent tariff on Chinese imports and his cancellation of a duty-free exemption for low-value packages, arguing the actions are "protectionist" and break WTO rules.
Beijing's request for US trade consultations came as confusion reigned among shippers and retailers over Trump's closure of the "de minimis" exemption for package imports valued under US$800 (RM3,600) and widely used by e-commerce firms including Shein, Temu and Amazon.
A Customs and Border Protection official said all small packages from China and Hong Kong needed to have customs entries on file prior to arrival and there was the potential for some cargo to be sent back without this paperwork.
The WTO said China submitted a request for consultations with the US on the tariffs. China argues in the document that Trump's new duties aimed at halting the flow of fentanyl opioids and their precursor chemicals to the US “are imposed on the basis of unfounded and false allegations concerning China".
It said the duties are discriminatory, only applying to goods of Chinese origin, and are inconsistent with the US's WTO obligations.
The request for consultations is the start of a dispute process that could lead to a ruling that Trump's duties violated trade rules in the same manner that a 2020 WTO ruling found that his first-term China tariffs broke trade regulations.
But such a victory would be unlikely to bring Beijing relief because the WTO's Appellate Body has been largely inoperable for years, as the US has blocked the appointment of appellate judges over what it views as judicial overreach by the body.
The US Postal Service said yesterday it would again accept parcels from China and Hong Kong, reversing a temporary suspension that threatened to disrupt millions of package imports every day.
"We're all running around like headless chickens at this moment in time, trying to second-guess what's going to happen," said Martin Palmer, co-founder of Hurricane Commerce, a cross-border e-commerce data provider. "And in two weeks' time we may be back to normal."
As of yesterday, there was still no call scheduled between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss the new US tariffs and Beijing's retaliatory measures, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
— Reuters
