October 21, 2006	Saturday	Ramazan 27, 1427

WASHINGTON, Oct 20: An uncompromising China is on collision course with the United States and other trading partners in a WTO row over auto parts, a US trade official said on Friday.

The case is likely to become the first involving China to wend its full way through the World Trade Organisation’s dispute settlement process, Deputy US Trade Representative Karan Bhatia said.

Bhatia was to visit China next week to press a raft of US trade demands, including an end to Chinese subsidies that he argued protect state-owned industries from foreign competition.

China last month blocked an attempt by the European Union, the United States and Canada to seek a WTO ruling on the legality of Beijing’s tariffs on foreign auto parts.

However, WTO members can only use the blocking tactic once and arbitration panels are usually created at the next session of the Geneva body’s dispute settlement body.

“We’ve had no indications from the Chinese that they’re prepared to address this area to our satisfaction and so I fully do expect the panel will be formed,” Bhatia told reporters.

The auto case was “symptomatic of policies in other areas, where we’re concerned we’re seeing signs that China, either through subsidies or through policies that favour domestic industries, are distorting the playing field”.

Bhatia was to meet Ministry of Commerce and other Chinese officials in Beijing at the end of next week, after starting his visit on Tuesday with stops in the cities of Dalian and Shenyang.

He described the visit as a routine update on bilateral trade headaches, and said the talks would feed into a new “strategic economic dialogue” announced during a visit to China last month by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

The top-level dialogue is expected to convene for the first time in Beijing in December.

The auto parts complaint is only the second against China since it joined the WTO at the end of 2001.—AFP