In an ongoing countervailing duty investigation before the U.S. Department of Commerce, the governments of both China and Cambodia are trying to convince Commerce that WTO law and U.S. law do not allow for countervailing duties to be imposed on the basis of subsidies provided by a government

The EU has opened a new Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) investigation involving a procurement bid in Portugal that includes a Chinese company. This type of investigation has already caused friction in the China-EU economic relationship.

In a report circulated last week, a WTO panel found that an EU countervailing duty calculated in a way that attributed Chinese government subsidies to the government of Indonesia was inconsistent with the WTO's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM).

As part of its transparency obligations at the WTO, China recently submitted its "New and Full Notification Pursuant to Article XVI:1 of the GATT 1994 and Article 25 of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures" (SCM Agreement).

In a recent preliminary determination, the U.S. Commerce Department has made a finding that transnational subsidies exist in a case involving a Chinese manufacturer that invested in Cambodia.

A petition alleging that imported chassis from Mexico and Thailand have been subsidized and are causing injury to a U.S. industry is the latest U.S. CVD case to cite Chinese "transnational subsidies."

A U.S. countervailing duty investigation on file folders from Cambodia is the latest trade remedy investigation to test out the new regulations allowing the Commerce Department to consider transnational subsidy programs as part of its assessment of foreign subsidies.