Two Chinese steel companies have won anti-dumping cases after US regulators determined that neither had sold products in the United States at prices below what they were charging for the same items at home, the law firm representing the companies said Thursday.

The separate cases involving Maanshan Iron & Steel Co. and WeiFang Steel Pipe Co., decided earlier this month, were unusual in that Chinese companies have not usually contested anti-dumping charges.

Their decision to do so reflects China's more assertive approach to trade issues now that it has gained its long-sought membership in the World Trade Organization.

"In the past, many Chinese companies have been reluctant to participate in foreign anti-dumping proceedings that they find unfamiliar and burdensome," said Patrick Norton, a partner with the law firm O'Melveny & Myers in Shanghai.

As a result, most Chinese companies have lost such cases and been hit with high anti-dumping duties, he said.

Dumping is the practice of exporting a product at a price that is lower than that charged for the same product in a company's home market. WTO rules allow governments to charge duties if they determine dumping from a foreign country has harmed domestic competitors.

Maanshan Iron & Steel, based in eastern China's Anhui Province and listed on the stock exchanges in Hong Kong and Shanghai, is one of China's biggest steel producers. A few months ago, the US Department of Commerce made a preliminary decision that Maanshan should pay a 153 percent duty for dumping, the law firm said.

The charges against WeiFang, which is based in the northeastern province of Shandong, involved imports of circular welded carbon-quality steel pipe, according to documents posted on a Department of Commerce website. Other details were not available.

The US Department of Commerce decisions in favor of the two Chinese companies will allow them both to export their products to the United States without paying anti-dumping duties.

Company officials were not available for comment.

China has joined Japan, South Korea, the European Union and other steel exporters in protesting a US decision to impose tariffs of up to 30 percent on certain imported steel products on March 20, using a section of global trade rules that allows temporary tariffs as a safeguard against import surges.

Those countries have asked the WTO to rule on the legality of the US move -- a process that could take up to two years.

In the meantime, China has threatened to slap tariffs of 24 percent on US exports to China of waste paper, bean oil and electric compressors if its exporters are not excluded from the US steel tariffs or compensated for losses. US officials have said demands for compensation were unjustified.

(China Daily May 31, 2002)