Geneva, October 15:

The US, the EU and Japan today demanded answers from China on what they said were its failures to open up its markets to greater foreign competition.

Representatives of the world’s three biggest economic powers were disappointed by China’s refusal to provide serious explanations of how it was living up to the promises it made when it joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001, according to trade officials present at the review meet at WTO headquarters.

Washington accused China of manipulating prices on the raw materials used to produce steel, chemicals, airplanes and automobiles, giving Chinese manufacturers a massive advantage o-ver their American competitors.

Tokyo complained about Beijing’s tariff rates on camera film and export restrictions on the coke used in steel production, while Brussels queried government measures that apparently limit Chinese imports of foreign-made chemicals, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and other products, officials said.

The EU said in a written submission that it is “very concerned about and is not satisfied with the level of WTO compliance on a number of restrictions maintained by China.” Submissions and debates at WTO review meetings do not constitute formal legal complaints, but they often provide an indication of pressing disagreements between WTO members and, sometimes, future trade disputes.

China agreed as part of its WTO accession package six years ago to phase in a number of reforms aimed at liberalising its agricultural, manufacturing and services markets. It also accepted a decade of annual reviews.

But China provided only limited answers to questions posed by the US, the EU and Japan at the meeting, officials said. It also challenged whether the review was the appropriate forum for examining issues it said were not part of its WTO commitments.

Beijing, the world’s largest producer of many industrial commodities, drives up costs for companies outside China by limiting its export of the raw materials, the US told the WTO’s 151 members in its submission to the review body last month.

It claimed that the export restrictions also ensure an oversupply of commodities on the Chinese market.