By Emma Graham-Harrison
BEIJING, Oct 6 (Reuters) - China is "dissatisfied" with a European Union decision to impose anti-dumping tariffs on seamless steel pipes from China, and believes the move ignores global trade rules, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
China has data to prove its steel exports were priced at market rates and had not affected steel firms there, Xinhua quoted an unnamed official from the fair trade department of the Ministry of Commerce as saying.
The penalties on the steel products, deemed to threaten "material injury" to European rivals, will last five years and range from 17.7 to 39.2 percent, the report said.
But Xinhua quoted the commerce ministry official saying the decision ignores World Trade Organisation guidelines about when the safeguards can be imposed.
"(This) violates the promise to oppose protectionism that the European Union made at the G20 summit ... and the Chinese side is going to resolutely protect the legitimate interests of Chinese enterprises," the official told Xinhua.
Beijing has named the bloc as one of the most frequent users of anti-dumping measures against China, and is gearing up for what is expected to be a bruising fight this autumn over leather shoes made in China and Vietnam.
EU officials are deciding whether to extend for five years tariffs first imposed in 2006.
China in July launched its first trade dispute against the EU at the World Trade Organisation, complaining anti-dumping duties imposed on imported Chinese screws and bolts were discriminatory and protectionist.
For export-dependent China, buffeted by the drop in demand following the global economic crisis, keeping export markets open is vital to maintaining jobs, especially at the factories that dominate the export sector.
Chinese President Hu Jintao has already warned against a repeat of "safeguard" duties, which the United States enacted for the first time last month against Chinese tyres.
Trade officials in Beijing see the battle against extending the shoes tariff as the biggest trade dispute after the tyres issue.