Trade

Citing a special safeguard provision and reversing previous policies, US President Obama announced that the US would impose a 35 percent tariff on automobile and light-truck tires imported from China, because Chinese imports were "disrupting" the tire market. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce denounced the decision, calling it violation of the WTO rule and America's "relevant commitments made on the G-20 financial summit". US officials said they were merely invoking tools that the US explicitly negotiated with China as part of her acceptance into the WTO. Later, the Chinese Government announced that it would start subsidies and anti-dumping investigations on American exports of automotive products and chicken meat.