BEIJING, June 30 (Reuters) - China has cancelled punitive tariffs on newsprint paper imports from the United States, Canada and South Korea, marking an end to anti-dumping duties that it launched a decade ago.
China's foreign trade ministry, the predecessor of the current Ministry of Commerce, in June 1999 imposed a tariff of up to 78 percent on newsprint paper imports from the three countries as a way to protect its local industry.
It was the first time that China had imposed anti-dumping measures, making the case a focus of attention in Chinese industrial and legal circles.
The Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday that the tariff would end on June 30.
According to the World Trade Organisation, China initiated 11 anti-dumping investigations in the second half of 2008, the third most by any country apart from India and Brazil, which investigated 42 and 16 cases, respectively.
China has been the biggest target of anti-dumping probes over the last 14 years. In 2008, China was the subject of 73 new anti-dumping investigations, fully one-third of the 208 probes worldwide.
China's exports have exploded in the past decade, reaching $1.43 trillion in 2008 from $195 billion in 1999.
Beijing lashed out on Monday after the U.S. commerce department opened its third anti-dumping investigation against Chinese steel imports in 10 days, saying that it was shocked by U.S. trade protectionism. [ID:nPEK328156] (Reporting by Zhou Xin and Simon Rabinovitch; Editing by Ken Wills)