Decline in U.S. industries unrelated to China: commerce ministry

China has urged the Biden administration to stop shifting the issues of U.S. domestic industry development onto China, vowing to take all necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests, said the Ministry of Commerce on Friday.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative announced on Thursday that it has issued its findings in the Section 301 investigation targeting China in the maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors.

This action is filled with baseless accusations against China. Historically, the decline of the U.S. shipbuilding industry is unrelated to China. Long before China's rise in the shipbuilding sector, the U.S. shipbuilding industry had already lost much of its global market share, said a spokesperson from the Ministry of Commerce in an online statement.

In contrast, the Biden administration has provided substantial subsidies to domestic industries through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and the CHIPS and Science Act, many of them are discriminatory subsidies, said the commerce official.

These policies and practices severely undermine the effectiveness and authority of the World Trade Organization rules and are a true example of non-market-oriented practices, according to the Commerce Ministry.