China hit by 77 trade-remedy probes in 2012

In 2012, 21 economies launched 77 trade-remedy investigations targeting Chinese exports, up 11.6 percent from a year earlier, while China's export losses surged 369 percent year-on-year to $27.7 billion, the Ministry of Commerce said on Monday.

Yao Jian, spokesman of the ministry, attributed the surge in export losses to the solar product investigations launched by the European Union, which caused losses of $20.4 billion to Chinese exporters.

In the first quarter of this year, China was targeted by 22 trade remedy investigations, up 22.2 percent year-on-year, while related exported losses reached $963 million, compared with $2.64 billion in the same period of last year.

China was the target of four Section 337 investigations in the first three months, in addition to 18 anti-dumping investigations and four anti-subsidy investigations.